[en] I want to discuss the role of neutrino-electron scattering in the search for physics beyond the standard model. The standard model makes specific predictions about the nature of the neutrinos which participate in such processes and about the interactions responsible for them. The process upon which I shall concentrate is elastic scattering, but I shall pay some attention to inelastic processes in which the target electron is itself transformed into a heavier charged lepton, in other words the inverse of the decay of the heavier lepton. In the case of elastic scattering we are mainly looking at neutral-currents and we can ask a series of simple questions: Does the interaction conserve lepton flavor? Does it fit the prescriptions of the standard model? Are the neutrinos Majorana or Dirac particles? In the case of inverse muon and tau decays we are looking at charge-currents, and we want to pin down the identity of the neutrinos emitted in the decay of these charged leptons as well as to set bounds on non-(V-A) components of the interaction. In order to discuss these topics, it is useful to review the general properties of the scattering process, especially the kinematics and the general form of the differential cross-section. Kinematics are important because they prevent us from searching for some processes and effects which we would like to detect. The differential cross-section, if measured with sufficient care, may tell us something about the presence of non-standard terms in the interaction and even about the nature of the neutrino. The detailed outline of the talk is: identity of the final state neutrino; kinematics; differential cross-sections; oscillations and universality; a test for Dirac neutrinos; inverse muon decay; and the standard model and radiative corrections. 22 ref., 2 tabs