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This book consists of 100 questions for beginners on what the author defines as “severe personality disorders: narcissistic, borderline, schizoid, paranoid, hypomanic, antisocial, histrionic, and schizotypal” (p. 3). The questions are organized into six sections, entitled Diagnosis and Differential Diagnosis, Structure and Dynamics, Origins and Development, Evaluation and Triage, Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, and Prognosis and Outcome. Each question receives a 11/2- to 2-page answer, written as simply and clearly as possible, with suggested readings at the end of each answer. Although the author refers to DSM-III-R (not DSM-IV, although the book is published in 1995), he clearly uses a somewhat different classification. At times he suggests amendments to the DSM descriptions and classifications. This discrepancy from DSM-IV may cause problems for beginners, especially those who unfortunately imagine DSM-IV has the validity of a textbook of medicine with specific “diseases” outlined in it.
The author is clearly quite knowledgeable in his field: he is, we are told, a Professor of Psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and a training and