Altschule traces concepts in psychopathology by drawing from writings over two thousand years-ending in the early twentieth century-on “the nature, development, and course of the different mental disorders whose existence has been recognized-albeit under different names-during that period” (p. 9). The quotations of which the book largely consists are organized into two main parts: general aspects and theoretical considerations of mental diseases (e. g., the unconscious mind, the meaning of psychotic thinking, and multiple personalities) and mental disease syndromes (e. g., affective disorders as described by authors as early as the fifth century B. C. down to Krafft-Ebbing in 1903). The book, stressing