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In the context of the 40th anniversary conference of the French-speaking society for neuropsychology (SNLF), two former presidents of the society offer a crossed reflection on the respective contribution of research and clinical practice to the ever-growing field of neuropsychology. The neuropsycholinguist Jean-Luc Nespoulous focuses on the importance of theoretical frameworks and models to improve the understanding of his field of research, and on the close links between linguistics and neuropsychology. He advocates a perpetual reassessment of methods and the underlying models, with a focus on more ecological assessments, through the studying of bilingual individuals, situated cognition, and ecological testing. The neuropsychologist Francis Eustache unravels the invaluable contribution of case studies to the understanding of neuropsychological phenomena, especially memory impairment. He advocates a co-construction and confirmation of models through research based on both practitioners and patients’ experiences. Moreover, his talk points out how clinical neuropsychology can bring up or examine social and research preoccupations, and vice versa, through the example of post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD). However, both speakers agree on the importance of the complementary nature of research and clinical practice, and on the need to better characterize the numerous phenomena involved. According to the speakers, this would only be possible through interdisciplinary approaches, which would allow us to further our understanding of human thought processes and behaviors.