A historical perspective on cerebral palsy as a concept and a diagnosis.

Sigmund Freud was the first to write about cerebral palsy as a nosographic category, uniting various infantile motor deficits of brain origin. He did not ascribe more than a temporary value to the term (infantile) cerebral palsy, but it has become--and still is--an indispensable part of the nosographic system. Nevertheless, it is still easier to explain what cerebral palsy is not than to define it precisely.