"While much attention has been focused on perfecting a taxonomy of mental illness, the editors of this volume argue that cataloguing normal human behavior is an equally vital, if not more daunting, task. A better understanding of normality will further our understanding of the complexities of psychopathology, they maintain, because we will have a meaningful yardstick for comparison and evaluation." "Further advancing the evolution of the science of normatology, this important volume assembles an impressive array of researchers and clinicians from many fields--psychiatry, psychotherapy, stress research, alcoholism research, military psychology, family studies, sociology, and forensics--to discuss how researchers and practitioners in these disciplines define what is normal and what is pathological." "The book addresses a broad range of intriguing questions: Why do some families adapt well, despite a host of factors stacked against them? Is mental health more common in some cultures than in others? What psychosocial or biological markers are the best indicators of successfully coping with stress? Taking into account the vast amount of new empirical data, clinical observations, and theoretical conceptualization in this field, this work is an important contribution to understanding the many variants and types of human behavior that may be subsumed under the heading of "normal.""--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved