In these three lectures, given at University College, London, the author, a distinguished Russian psychologist, describes numerous experiments, based on Pavlov's theory. These show how the growing child's behaviour, especially volition, can be influenced by verbal stimuli, acting as commands given by adults. This impact of the social environment on the child's overt behaviour and on the organization of his activities will not, and need not, be disputed. Yet Luria, though admitting that “age-old” human experience is transmitted to the child by adults, seems to be reluctant to acknowledge the existence of “inherent properties of mental life … rooted in the depths of the mind”. Analytical psychology has shown the part played by such properties, referred to as primordial patterns of behaviour or archetypes, in the individual's attitude to his actual life circumstances. It remains to be seen to what extent the experiments devised by the Russian school can be used to demonstrate the interaction of archetypal structures and external reality in human relations.