Introduction

Abstract

What can one say about the prodigious productivity of Bender over these many years? Judging from this scientific autobiography, it would seem as if every stage in her training had made a relevant contribution to her final emergence as a neuropsychiatric investigator. The inevitability of this development leads one to conclude that from very early in her career she must have had an intuitive understanding of where she was going, of what she wanted to do, and of how she would go about doing it. Her research strategies have been quite characteristic, and it is possible to typify her style of investigation as “Benderian” since many of her leading students have displayed it to some extent. In essence it is a straightforward, pragmatic approach involving careful psychiatric and neurological examinations, the use of special tests like the famous one that bears her name, the assessment of family background, and the follow-up. It is this last link in the research sequence that constitutes perhaps her major procedural contribution. The follow-up study is a sobering experience for clinicians and many are loath to put their narcissism on the line and risk their diagnostic and prognostic reputations. Bender is too much of an investigator to allow such false pride to intrude upon her work. She is very ready to check on her postulates.