ABSTRACT
Wernicke’s hypothetical diagram of language function and his new classification of aphasias were rapidly accepted by other leading aphasiologists of the period preceding World War I. Lichtheim was profoundly influenced by the pioneer work of both Broca and Wernicke in his development of the localisationist concept of aphasia. He was particularly interested in the description of other types of aphasia which in his view could not be explained entirely on the basis of Wernicke’s model, and which he believed resulted from the interruption of the pathways connecting major speech centres rather than from damage of the speech centres themselves. Freud preferred the term asymbolia to transcortical sensory aphasia and, based on the famous case of Hubner, he pointed out that asymbolia was the only form of transcortical aphasia that had a specific localisation, namely a pathological separation of the auditory area from its associations after posterior cortical damage.
