A world of cities: dream or nightmare?

With the progress of civilization cities, many of which originally developed in Mesopotamia and Egypt, spread northwards into Europe to proliferate there and, later, in the New World. The industrial Revolution, a predominantly British phenomenon, was the original stimulus to Western urbanization, a process that continues to this day. City living has many advantages, but also many drawbacks including increased mortality and urban stress; psychiatry has had to concern itself with many of its difficulties. Rural-urban migration is also currently taking place in Asia, Latin America and Africa; in these continents the problems of urbanization, exacerbated by indigenous factors, have proved to be considerable. Some remedies for overurbanization are considered, as is also city development in the future.