After having underlined the increasingly negative influence of environmental changes on human life, the paper focuses o their influence on the psyche which is subjected to a continual series of traumas caused by the abnormal rhythm of modern life and the lack of human solidarity and ideals. Because of their fragility, the greatest victims of this situation are the young, the old and women and the pay the greatest price by resorting to drugs, alcoholism, prostitution or new forms of reactive psychosis. This underlined the necessity for continual and intense preventive action.