New knowledge in psychiatry developed in the last two decades of the twentieth century has revolutionized our understanding of how the brain works and has opened up the possibilities for care and cure of major mental illness in the twenty-first century. New biological methods combined with an epidemiology refined by more precise definitions of psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses and the development of new assessment methods in psychosocial research have all led to an interdisciplinary and international approach where psychiatric researchers cross-fertilize each other’s work and have provided an opportunity for collaboration that is without parallel in the history of psychiatric research.

This volume represents the work of an international meeting led by two German psychiatrists, Dr. Eugene Wolpert, President of the German Society for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Neurology, and Dr. Hans Hafner, Professor of Psychiatry at the Central Institute of Mental Health Research in Mannheim. Contributions from the United States and the United Kingdom as well as Germany are included in this volume.

The chapters are a heterogeneous assortment of a variety of important areas of psychiatric research. These include reviews of the latest work on the biology of depression, the epidemiology of and preventive intervention in aggression and depression, the epidemiology of the early course of schizophrenia, long-term treatment strategies for patients with schizophrenia, a psychobiological model of temperament and character, neuroimaging, molecular genetics, and Al­zheimer’s disease.

What holds these contributions together are the innovative applications of various research methodologies, a focus on the brain and its interaction with genetic subtraits and environmental stressors, and the remarkable advances in psychiatric treatment that open up new investigational opportunities at the synapse, in the laboratory, in the imaging center, and in the hospital.

There is great hope and expectation for the future of psychiatry and psychiatric treatment. Our new understanding of the brain and behavior and our more effective treatment intervention strategies, when combined with our professional ethics, give reason for great optimism for the future of the field.