This paper is part of a longer study on outstanding creative personalities in modern drama in which their lives and work are studied psycho-analytically for the light shed on the development of creative imagination. Stanislavsky's early years were spent with a devoted mother and a father who made dramatic activity a feature of the life of his large family. Thus his early dramatic exploits did not make Stanislavsky his father's rival but rather compliant with his wishes. Cover memories suggest the early development of an 'artistic ego' which relegated the 'personal ego' of the child to secondary significance. While a native obstinacy