This book is a bequest. The author, K. W. Bash, did not live to see its
appearance. Though of American parentage, he spent most of his life in
Switzerland, where his last professional appointment before his
retirement was that of Associate Professor of Psychiatry in Bern. Pro-
fessor Bash made a lasting name for himself with his textbook of psy-
chopathology, his research on Rorschach interpretations and his emi-
nent position in the Jung school of psychological thought. In his last
years, however, it was Iranian psychiatry that claimed his main in-
terest. As an expert in the field who also spoke the language, he spent
several long periods in Iran, working in an advisory capacity. This book
is the product of intensive cross-cultural and epidemiological research,
which unfortunately had to be broken off because of the political events
in Iran. Nevertheless, editor and publisher count themselves fortunate
indeed that it was possible to save the important material that the
author had already accumulated from oblivion and to make it accessible
to others interested in the field. Prilly-Lausanne C. MULLER Preface The
conception of this book originated in our Shiraz Mental Health Survey of
1969170 when, after we had begun epidemiological studies in the villages
in 1963, we for the first time gained comparable data from a city. The
course of the village studies is described under "Ori- gins", Part A,
Chap. II, and in the chapters on local surveys in Part B.