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The authors state that they intend this book as a practical handbook which the student can have at his side when he is learning to make psychiatric observations. It consists of a collection of outlines for the various examinations in use at the Pennsylvania Hospital, with the addition of tabulations for information regarding certain common symptoms in children (fears, lying, stealing, convulsions, masturbation, etc.), and finally a chapter on psychiatric terminology consisting of a bare list of about two hundred and fifty words without definition or comment. At the beginning of the book is a chapter on the art and practice of psychiatric examination which contains some useful hints and arresting admonitions to the naïve student. Each chapter is introduced with a paragraph or two of very simple explanation or comment on the examination outline or table which follows. But nowhere is there any adequate discussion of principles of psychiatric examination. There is no presentation of the varying purposes, goals, and objectives of examinations in different situations;—the difference in emphasis and approach between, for example, a consultation examination where early diagnosis is the primary objective, and the initial examination of a patient who has entered a hospital for a prolonged period of treatment. Similarly, the need for a varying degree of activity or passivity on the part of the examiner is mentioned but not sufficiently clarified. This is usually a perplexing question to the inexperienced examiner. The chapters dealing with examination of adults appear to be arranged chiefly as a guide for young doctors caring for psychotic patients in hospitals.
The book is somewhat disappointing, as it presents little beyond the sheaf of specific examination outlines with which most psychiatric hospitals are already equipped, each according to its own special needs.