**1. Introduction**

This volume appears at an especially propitious time for psychiatry, clinical psychology, social work, and all the systematic attempts to ameliorate the morbidity and the mortality that is associated with abnormal function of the mind. One can say with conviction that many of the assumptions held by mental health professions for the last half century have come to be challenged and may prove to be false. What do I mean by this?


At this watershed moment in the mental health sciences, it is a particularly apt time to present an illustrious array of international experts and the scholarship that they bring to central and foundational issues in the field. The topics our author addresses range from substance abuse to anxiety, to prenatal factors, to the pathogenic effects of combat. These chapters are grounded in clinical observation and the best research practices. They represent a fascinating array of different perspective appropriate to the beginning of a new era in the mental health sciences.
