A. N. Leontyev (1903-1979) was a prominent Soviet psychologist, disciple of L. S. Vygotsky,  member of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. He was a Doctor of Honoris Causa of the University of Paris (1968), and an honorary member of Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1973). This book contains works he wrote at different periods of his fruitful life. They treat complex and topical problems of the origin of psyche and its historical development. Importance attaches to his articles dealing with the interconnection of the human psyche and culture, and the evolution of higher psychic functions during the individual's assimilation of historical experience. Several articles show the development of child's psyche. The author criticises the behaviourist and biological conceptions of the psyche.