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The editors and two hundred and fifty contributors have produced the most exhaustive, creatively organized, and engaging reference work in child psychiatry. It covers the age spectrum from conception to twenty years. No facet of the subject, no interdisciplinary linkage, has been neglected. This is perhaps best exemplified by the splendid Chapter 3, in Vol. I, "The Molecular Biology of Development" by J. Gerald Young and Donald J. Cohen. They present the essentials of human genetics, neurochemistry, and neuroendocrinology which are related to the concepts of stress and trauma and to intrapsychic, interpersonal, and social factors.
There are major differences in theoretical orientation and practice in the big and expanding field of child psychiatry. The editors have dealt candidly and instructively with these differences in their wise selection of authors and in their own discussions. There is considerable variation in the quality of writing and depth of coverage of the assigned topics. Very few of the contributions are inadequate—the bulk of them are most praiseworthy.
Many contributions throughout the Handbook—not all by psychoanalysts—explicitly and implicitly indicate the major influence of psychoanalysis in the early and continuing development of child psychiatry. An impressive number of psychoanalysts engaged in practice, teaching, and research in child psychiatry are among the editors and other contributors; for example: Sidney Berman, Rudolf Ekstein, Robert Emde, Stuart Finch, Eleanor Galenson, Sally Provence, Herman Roiphe, and Albert J. Solnit.