This volume provides a unique and valuable contribution to our understanding of the impact of stressful life events and mass trauma on the person, the culture and society in the course of the life span. It provides a comprehensive look at our psychological state of affairs at the beginning of the twenty-first century. There are several volumes that address some or most of these areas indivi- ally but this volume is unique in that it has brought together theoreticians, researchers and clinicians who address critical challenges in our lives. But we are now several months into the global financial crisis requiring a transition, not only for the western world but for the third world. How on earth do families in trauma zones – from Sri Lanka to Afghanistan, New Orleans to Gaza – cope with similar declining older relatives, with added traumas and zero medical resources attempt to survive? In news reports, politicians and financiers denying the inevitable and struggling for solutions that cannot be relevant to the new reality that they have yet to discover.

Thomas W. Miller is Professor at Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky as well as a senior research scientist with the University of Connecticut’s Center for Health Intervention and Prevention. He is also a University Teaching Fellow and a Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology in clinical psychology. He also is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Royal Society of Medicine.

The author of 10 books, his research has included cross-cultural studies of trauma in veterans; victims of natural disasters; medical conditions, including HIV; and applications of telemedicine in providing access to care for rural and underserved populations.