This fine book is suitable for medical students and residents and for psychiatrists who wish assistance in their approach to patients. Conversational and personal in design, articulate in expression, it makes for pleasant reading.
The organization differs from most psychiatry texts in that the author spends one third of his time simply emphasizing the logical and pragmatic approach to patients. No attempt is made to survey systematically psychiatric literature or history; the author simply details how he himself approaches patients. Clinically oriented readers will find their time well spent here.
The second section deals with diagnosis. Storrow barely mentions standard psychiatric nomenclature and makes no attempt to describe disease entities. Instead, he emphasizes "practical tools for the working psychiatrist"; and he is at his best when he explains tactical approaches to the patient, the useful information forms he has devised, and the "how to" of working up the psychiatric patient.