Alexander Luria

About the author

Alexander Romanovich Luria (1902–1977) is widely credited as the father of modern neuropsychology. Born in Kazan, the Soviet scholar developed an influential battery of neuropsychological tests through clinical work with brain-injured veterans of World War II, culminating in his landmark Higher Cortical Functions in Man (1962), later supplemented by The Working Brain (1973). A colleague of Lev Vygotsky and a founder of cultural-historical psychology, Luria also conducted pioneering developmental research among Uzbek populations.

He is equally remembered for two celebrated case studies: The Mind of a Mnemonist and The Man with a Shattered World.