We live in a climate of overload — working more than one job, proud that anybody can reach us at any moment, handling whatever comes our way. All this “efficiency” comes at the sacrifice of privacy or any place for personal repair, and we live “pushed to the limit.” Steady state overload triggers not “anxiety” (as it is usually mislabeled) but the affect distress-anguish. In this album Nathanson shows the ubiquity of ignored and overlooked distress, presenting a new Compass of Distress that complements his famous Compass of Shame, and explains the place of distress-anguish in a wide range of normal and pathological constellations. Wesley Novak offers innovative methods for the psychotherapy of distress; Jon Grindlinger shows the place of distress in several forms of music; Sue Deppe explains the way several major religions handle this affect; Jeanette Wright demonstrates the role of visual imagery in distress; Melvyn Hill explains how tragedy and comedy deal with the scripts through which people handle suffering; and further workshop presentations suggest the use of this knowledge in clinical work. The Third Michael Franz Basch Memorial Award Lecture is presented by Reverend David McShane as Distress: Bad News From A Friend