Luria's ideas in East and West Johnson J.J. Boston University, Department of Psychology, USA, Boston jjjohnson@mail.boston.com Luria's life embodied a contradict ion between personal conformism and intellectual dissent. One might say that the former was the price he had to pay for the latter. His approach to neuropsycho logy was alien to, and ahead of, the dogmas of his t ime and place. Lurian notions of cognit ive hierarchies and funct ional systems ant icipated the "post-modular" understanding of the brain that is taking shape only now in modern cognit ive neuroscience. Luria is amo ng the principal intellectual forefathers and architects of the contemporary dynamic, interactive visio n of the brain, which is only beginning to replace modularit y as the do minant neuropsycho logical paradigm. Luria's having been ahead o f his t ime and out of sine wit h his place is reflected in the vectors of his scient ific reputation: he is more famous today than twenty years ago, his influence on North American psycho logy is more pervasive than on Eastern European psycho logy. In my interact ions with Luria I was first perplexed, then amused by his fundamental indifference toward the fate of his intellectual legacy on the Soviet soil. The indifference was unspoken but unmistakable to those who knew him well. Locally, his concern was for the survival o f his persona, not of his ideas. He went through the mandatory mot ions o f survival obedient ly, even eagerly, yet with a detachment tinged wit h disdain. In an elusive but perceptible way his posture was that of so meone surrounded by a mo b, not an audience. His true passion of an artist yearning for approval was reserved for the West.