Introduction.

This contribution is itself introductory to a larger subject, and is an attempt to present some physiological observations in a way that may stimulate the interest of psychologists and psychiatrists. Viewed from a biological standpoint, man is limited in his thinking and behaviour by his innate constitution, anatomically and physiologicallly. As a living, functioning individual he is much more than the mere sum of his parts, yet it is a fact that structurally he is made up of reflex arcs (receptor endorgans, afferent nerves, central nervous system, efferent nerves and effector organs). The vital functions of nutrition, respiration, circulation, excretion, reproduction, locomotion and metabolism are effected by standard types of reflexes which pervade the vertebrate kind, so that a dynamic reflexological approach to normal and abnormal human behaviour should be revealing. Man is stimulated by his total environment to respond as a complete being, and this full activity is retained as experience which modifies subsequent behaviour. That being so, the nature of integration of these reflexes and the ways in which they are influenced by experience constitute a subject very pertinent to the study of psychology and psychiatry. Something of that nature forms the material of this paper.