This series covers in autobiographical accounts the first fifty years in the history of neuropsychopharmacology. The autobiographies in Volume I, (The Rise of Psychopharmacology and the Story of CINP) are from psychopharmacologists who began their professional careers in the 1950s and 1960s; in Volume II (The Triumph of Psychopharmacology and the Story of CINP), from those who started in the 1970s; in Volume III (From Psychopharmacology to Neuropsychopharmacology in the 1980s and the Story of CINP), who started in the 1980s; and in Volume IV (Reflections on Twentieth-Century Psychopharmacology), who started in the 1990s. At the core of each volume are personal accounts in which the contributions of the scientists, are at the center of the reflections, but also include several sections in which the reflections are focused on the mainstream of events, particular areas of research, individuals and organizations. The series was the extension of an effort by CINP’s History Committee, during the chairmanship of Tom Ban, to document both the history of the College and the enire field. It was co-edited by Ban, David Healy and Edward Shorter. Its publication was supported by the College primarily from non-restricted publication grants received from Pierre Fabre, Janssen Pharmaceutica and Research Foundation,Inc., and Janssen Phamaceutica International in Collaboration with Organon International.

This series covers in autobiographical accounts the first fifty years in the history of neuropsychopharmacology. The autobiographies in Volume I, (The Rise of Psychopharmacology and the Story of CINP) are from psychopharmacologists who began their professional careers in the 1950s and 1960s; in Volume II (The Triumph of Psychopharmacology and the Story of CINP), from those who started in the 1970s; in Volume III (From Psychopharmacology to Neuropsychopharmacology in the 1980s and the Story of CINP), who started in the 1980s; and in Volume IV (Reflections on Twentieth-Century Psychopharmacology), who started in the 1990s. At the core of each volume are personal accounts in which the contributions of the scientists, are at the center of the reflections, but also include several sections in which the reflections are focused on the mainstream of events, particular areas of research, individuals and organizations. The series was the extension of an effort by CINP's History Committee, during the chairmanship of Tom Ban, to document both the history of the College and the enire field. It was co-edited by Ban, David Healy and Edward Shorter. Its publication was supported by the College primarily from non-restricted publication grants received from Pierre Fabre, Janssen Pharmaceutica and Research Foundation,Inc., and Janssen Phamaceutica International in Collaboration with Organon International.

"The story of the 1990s is complemented by reflections on twentieth-century psychopharmacology by the few of those who actively participated throughout the development of the field"--Page 4 of cover.

The development of modern psychopharmacology was triggered by two major discoveries: the psychomimetic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25) in 1943 and the therapeutic effects of chlorpromazine in 1952. In his opening address to the 1st CINP Congress in Rome, Rothlin pointed out that these discoveries gave "a great impetus for any kind of scientific approach to brain research" and had "revolutionary consequences in the treatment of psychotic patients". The incentive they provided "was not limited to theoretical and practical medical sciences but caused an even greater stimulus to the imagination of chemists, leading to the production of new compounds with a speed that neither pharmacological, biochemical nor clinical investigations could equitably follow. " The possibility to induce psychopathology by the administration of pharmacological agents and to control naturally occurring psychopathol ogy by drugs opened unforeseen possibilities for brain research and a new era in psychiatry. In psychiatry, the new psychotropic drugs with their increasingly better defined behavioral, neurophysiological and biochemi cal actions have provided a new means for therapeutically influencing and systematically studying psychopathological conditions, whereas in the basic sciences, neuropharmacological research, directed to reveal the action mechanism of new drugs, brought about unprecedented progress in the identification of the morphological substrate of different brain func tions. It also set the stage for the exploration of possible correlations between behavioral, including psychopathological, and neurochemical events.