The fourth edition of this modern classic presents the clinical descriptions and psychopathological insights of Fish's to a new generation of students and practitioners. It includes recent revisions of diagnostic classification systems, as well as new chapters that consider the controversies of classifying psychiatric disorder and the fundamental role and uses of psychopathology.

Clear and readable, it provides concise descriptions of the signs and symptoms of mental illness and astute accounts of the varied manifestations of disordered psychological function, and is designed for use in clinical practice. An essential text for students of medicine, trainees in psychiatry and practising psychiatrists, it will also be useful to psychiatric nurses, mental health social workers and clinical psychologists.