The last 20 years have seen a rapidly growing interest in disorder of brain function in psychiatric illness but this is only the latest phase in a steady development of ideas over the last three centuries. Throughout this time, biological and psychological formulations of psychiatric disorder have co-existed and, at different periods, one or other has been the focus of attention. Thomas Willis, who coined the word ‘neurology’ 300 years ago, felt that psychiatric disorder represented brain disorder, but it was only during the nineteenth century, as understanding of brain function made its first real progress, that this opinion became more explicit and accepted. By the second half of the century, it was axiomatic that psychiatric disorder was synonymous with brain disorder (Griesinger, 1845; Maudsley, 1873; Ferrier, 1878); all that was lacking was the actual neurophysiological basis of mental disorder.