Aleksandr Lurija: The 6 Best Quotes

Born in 1902 in Kazan (Russia), Aleksandr Lurija is considered the father of modern neuropsychology. His research is considered the foundation upon which this fundamental branch of psychology stands, according to which human behavior is the result of specific areas of the brain.

With the following quotations from  Aleksandr Lurija we intend to present you a generic picture of his life and his most significant contributions.

He is  an author who has contributed to more than 300 scientific publications,  including “The higher cortical functions of man”, “Neuropsychology of memory.”, “Language and development of mental processes in the child” or “How the brain works “, just to name a few. Luria came from a wealthy Jewish family who understood the importance of multilingualism: Both he and his sister mastered German, French, English, and of course Russian which was their mother tongue.

Aleksandr Lurija: multicultural education and multidisciplinary training

Luria’s academic path was rather curious. When he was seven, his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the Russian Revolution. However, he soon (only 16 years old) began university studies to follow in the footsteps of his father, a famous professor and gastroenterologist.

The sentence that we propose below is taken from his autobiography, “A look at the past” (1979). It is a reflection on the early development of his interest in psychology and mental processes in general.

The flexible hierarchy

According to Luria and her mentor Lev Vygotski, the human mind was far from fragmented. The two scholars considered the brain a whole made up of brain areas connected to each other. According to this approach,  it is not possible to attribute the various cognitive functions to a specific and delimited area. However, these theories conflict with those developed by other leading scholars such as Paul Broca or Karl Wernicke, who advocated the association of certain cognitive functions to different areas of the brain.

The holism vs localization debate has been going on for decades. Today, in a certain sense,  the validity of both positions is recognized: cognitive activity is based on a series of interconnections, but it is still possible to distinguish various areas to which certain functions can be attributed. For example, today we know for sure that Broca’s area is closely related to the production of language.

Another quote from Aleksandr Lurija perfectly sums up the fascination that the brain mechanisms exerted on him:

Luria argued that  the human brain was structured on three levels: primary, secondary and tertiary. In each of these levels he identified areas that, through a system of neural connections, allow the performance of certain functions:

• Brain stem, hypothalamus and limbic system: wakefulness, primary memory and internal homeostasis.
• Temporal, occipital and parietal lobe: information storage and processing.
• Frontal lobe: movement and behavior programming.

The three levels identified by Lurija would form, as a whole, a system of interconnections in which the higher functions are entrusted to different brain areas that work in a coordinated manner.

Lesions in neuropsychology

Unlike physiology, experiments conducted in the field of neuropsychology do not cause brain injury. On the contrary, such experiments exploit congenital lesions or those caused by surgical interventions for therapeutic purposes.

With the famous quote that we present below, Aleksandr Lurija underlined that the source he drew on for his experiments was limited to a sample of patients already injured:

But Luria’s contribution is not limited to experiments on patients with acquired brain injury and her interest in the organization and localization of mental processes. He was also the inventor of one of the first “lie detector”. During his early years as a researcher he devoted himself to the study of psychophysiology. Later, I developed a growing interest in psychoanalysis and studied human affective states to develop the model of “conjugated motor responses”.

It is one of the most famous syllogisms of the Russian scholar. This sentence is linked to a trip by Lurija to Central Asia, during which he proposed this “riddle” to some peasants with the aim of demonstrating the existence of a universal logical reasoning.

If you’re wondering, broadly the answers he received were “What do I know? Why don’t you ask my neighbor yourself? ”, Someone even replied“ black ”because in his life he had only seen black bears, so he couldn’t conceive the idea of ​​a white bear.

The brain, a never solved enigma

Despite the numerous studies conducted throughout history, knowledge in the neuropsychological field is still limited when compared to all the processes and “mysteries” of the brain that we do not yet understand; but at the same time they appear sensational when you think about how many things seemed incomprehensible now have a scientific explanation. Aleksandr Lurija wrote in this regard:

One thing is certain, Luria has been a source of inspiration for many scholars, who have decided to treasure the legacy left by the Russian neuroscientist by delving into some practical aspects, such as the neuropsychological nature of reason. In addition to allowing us to better understand the functioning of our brain, its contribution has been  crucial for the development of neuropsychology.