The Abraham Flexner Lectures were established at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine in honour of a man who rendered outstanding service to American medical research and education. The list of the lecturers chosen contains the names of some of the most illustrious physicians and scientists of our time. To be invited to deliver these lectures is one of the greatest honours American medicine can bestow. This is the first series of lectures devoted to psychiatry. The fact that a psycho-analyst was chosen, illustrates the high esteem in which psycho-analysis is held in American medicine. The editor of this journal is to be congratulated upon having been invited to act as the Abraham Flexner Lecturer for 1953. The lectures are addressed to medical students. The following were the titles of his five lectures: Principles of Training in Psycho-analysis; Internal Conflict and Anxiety; Some Aspects of the Psycho-analytic Investigation of Childhood; Ego