Book Description

The purpose of this book is to provide the reader with a survey of some of the major areas of clinical psychology. No attempt has been made to include every area relevant to clinical psychology; the choices are selective but represent the wide range of areas touched by clinical psychologists. For some years I have felt the need for a book that provides students with more of a historical introduction and context from which to view current clinical psychology than is included in most textbooks. The issues and problems of clinical psychology have been with us since the beginning of time; however, most psychological literature is written with the bias that anything older than five or ten years is not relevant. Those who attempt to take a long-range view of clinical psychology are sometimes able to recall the early development of the field in the 1930s and 1940s. In this text, I asked the authors to begin with a brief survey of ancient and medieval history to set the stage for a discussion of current research and developments in the field. I hope that a presentation of this sort will provide the reader-whether advanced undergraduate, graduate, or professional-with a sense of perspective and context from which to view and understand clinical psychology.