[Luria's principles for rehabilitation of patients with brain damage]

For AR Luria, the Russian neuropsychologist and medical doctor, it was of main importance to have a scientific theory as the background for his rehabilitative work with brain-damaged individuals. His belief in the plasticity of the brain and the possibility of reorganizing the functional systems responsible for psychological behaviour has led to the new discipline of neuropsychological rehabilitation. Higher cortical functions are considered social in their origin, mediated by language and conscious in their performance. They are not localized but distributed in different areas of the brain, which collaborate in concerted action. Restoration of functions disturbed by brain damage can be obtained by specific methods and at different levels. A necessary background for the rehabilitation process is a thorough analysis of the psychological characteristics of the brain damaged individual. Only on this background can effective plans be made incorporating intact functions and compensation mechanisms. An automatization and a final integration of new functions is the final goal.