'If we wish to understand the inner life of an individual we must study the soul as well as the body, and if we desire to gain real insight into national characteristics we must explore the psychic and spiritual element underlying them. This psychic and spiritual element, however, reflects not merely the activity of individual human souls working in concert, but has its origin in a higher order...Either one must seek a basis for the psychology of peoples in a spiritual reality or one must abandon such a psychology in total.' - Rudolf Steiner (from the Preface) The lectures in this volume explore the nature and working of the various 'folk-souls', their influences, and their meaning in the modern world.