The History of Mental Symptoms: Descriptive Psychopathology since the Nineteenth Century by German E. Berrios New York:  Cambridge University Press, 1996,  xiv + 565 pp., $135.00; $59.95 paper

The comprehensive, weighty (the paperback edition weights close to three pounds), encyclopedic study The History of Mental Symptoms by the psychiatrist-historian German Berrios is an important contribution to the understanding of the language of psychiatry. In this work, psychopathology is intentionally limited to the history and current use of descriptive symptomatology; experimental and psychodynamic aspects of psychopathology are excluded. Central emphasis is given to developments during the 19th century. France was in the forefront, other countries (especially Germany, England, and America) are more briefly treated, and Eastern Europe and other continents are ignored. The background of earlier centuries, particularly of classical Greece, and the further developments in the 20th century frame the primary topic. The evolution of this descriptive psychiatric terminology is related to the contemporaneous psychological and philosophic contexts.

The volume is clearly structured. The introductory part delimits the object of inquiry and emphasizes the need for a recalibration of the psychiatric language, in significant part due to the biological developments in the neurosciences in the last 25 years. Then follow sections on cognition and consciousness, mood and emotions, volition and action in which chapters on individual symptoms are embedded. Part five, “Miscellany,” devotes chapters on personality and its disorders, and on self-harm. The chapters are organized predominantly by presenting the major psychiatrists in sequence and describing their contributions to the subjects of each section. Telling quotes are often included. A 79-page bibliography, a 21-page name index, and a surprisingly trim subject index of only ten pages conclude this scholarly work.

Berrios's rich and diverse educational background at England's