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Concurring with Kubie, the authors believe 'that the psycho-analyst is the logical person to initiate efforts in preventive psychiatry'; but they stress the impediment caused by the small numbers of patients he has to deal with. A working relationship with the epidemiologists is necessary, and with the social scientists as well; Talcott Parsons' work is a striking example of the latter. The authors have organized a scheme to screen a geographically defined part of the 'normal' population (Wellesly, a suburb of Boston, Mass.) for the presence of vulnerable individuals and to start preventive work on these. Thomas French's, Ives Hendrick's, and Robert Waelder's writings made the authors focus their work on the age group of four and a half to sixteen years. The paper deals with the assessment of 'a normal population as complementary to the type of clinical observations' which the authors so far have been unable to make. The project aims at prevention by tracing the formation of neurotic patterns as early as possible; by mobilizing the co-operation of the community as a whole the formation of fixed neurotic responses is counteracted. Thus valuable constructive assistance can be given at various age levels both for the family, the children, the schools, and the community.