Concealment as a Major Phenomenon

The clinical enterprise is based upon the ability (through psychiatric interview, abetted by such auxiliary devices as psychological testing, social history, and information from referring sources) to conduct a clinical evaluation process that will lead to informed judgments about the nature of the patient's personality and illness history, as a basis for appropriate, differentiated treatment recommendations, treatment planning, and treatment prognostication. That this process operates reasonably well in practice is a working conviction of the mental health practitioner who sees prospective patients in evaluation, takes them into therapy, and