<p> Although the electronic pairing hypothesis of Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer is verified by experiment, the lattice polarisation mechanism for over-screening the repulsion between mates in a pair need not be the sole mechanism. </p> <p> Alternatives to the lattice polarisation mechanism are discussed and a new approach to electronic polarisation is developed. Propagator formalism is reworked using a charge density propagator to avoid the Dyson equation for the screened potential. The fermi liquid approach to electrons in a metal is avoided, too, because it misses the correlations which give a solid its atomicity. An atomic picture is contrived instead and used to predict what observable features of a superconductor are influenced by atomic correlations. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)