The Clinical Interview Using Dsm-IV: The Difficult Patient

Fundamentals introduces diagnositic interviewing in a simple and straightforward manner. The chapter on the mental status exam is one that I return to many times. It alone makes the book worthwhile. The psychodynamic and characterological aspects are not to the level of other older texts (i.e MacKinnon and Michels). Overall this book has been very useful to me as a psychiatry resident. It is as important to have at the desk as Kaplan and Sadock's textbook.