ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the twenty-first century we know that language is more than grammar, syntax, and phonology; we know that the breakdown of language and communication following brain damage is more than ‘aphasia’; we know that there are no language centres, but complex interrelated networks partially associated to motor and sensory systems in the brain and entailing the interactive collaboration of ancient and modern, cortical and subcortical structures. We suggested in our preface to this book that knowledge of the past is an important foundation to understanding the present, and our hope is that our efforts met at least some of the reader’s expectations in this regard. As we would expect, aphasiology and aphasia are different at the turn of the twenty-first century to how they were at the beginning and further distance from events and developments will always provide a different picture. In this postscript we attempt to look a little way into the future and try to assess what aphasiology will be like in the next 20 years or so. Does a knowledge of the history of aphasia allow a more reliable prediction of its future?
