Shocking events, such as disasters, wars, mistreatment or abuse are serious attacks on the personal and social lives of human beings. The search for protection from these disruptive events is one of the major motives of mankind. The goal of this remarkable book is to acquire insight into the development and effectiveness of the tools which humanity has invented to cope with these events and how it will be able to deal with the crises and suffering it is being faced with now. The thesis is that the drive to protect themselves has made people more resilient against many of these events and empathy for the pain of other people has become the core of their civilisation.