This timely volume describes the emergence of a crisis in world mental health. It analyzes the growing burden of mental, behavioral and social problems in low-income countries, examines the sources of the substantial morbidity rates and their relation to development, and assesses current efforts to cope with them. It identifies opportunities for effective mental health interventions, methods of treatment, culturally appropriate prevention programs, and sound policy formation. It relates the mental health consequences of violence, dislocation, poverty, and the disenfranchisement of women to the most pressing economic, political, and environmental problems of our time. Because many of the problems reviewed in this volume occur in both low-income and high-income societies, fruitful comparison and collaboration between North and South can lead to mental health policies that can be applied in many settings.