There has recently been a revival of interest in the clinical manifestations of mental disorders, a highly desirable development in view of the still widespread misconception that there is an intrinsic antagonism between descriptive and dynamic psychiatry. However, it seems doubtful whether the republication of Brill's translation of an early edition of Bleuler's textbook deserves an unqualified welcome. The translation is poor and in places ridiculous. The medical student and the psychiatrist in training are likely to find Bleuler, in this presentation, odd, old-fashioned, and outlandish. It is a pity that the publishers have not made it sufficiently clear that the German original of which this was a translation has long been superseded by a series of revised editions, and that this book can