Maurice Greenberg is Head of the Student Counselling Service, University College London, Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust and the Royal Free Hospital and a member of The Group Analytic Practice, London. Sukhwinder Singh Shergill is a Wellcome Advanced Training Fellow and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry, London. George Szmukler is Consultant Psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. Digby Tantam is Clinical Professor of Psychotherapy at the University of Sheffield, Honorary Consultant Psychotherapist and Psychiatrist, Community Health Sheffield NHS Trust, and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Conflict and Reconciliation

`This book serves to remind us that in psychiatry the diagnosis, course, treatment and outcome of disorders rest heavily on the extraordinarily complex and sensitive relationship between doctor and patient…with its emphasis on narrative, meaning, the relationship between subjective experience and objective reality, [it] reasserts the primary truth of medicine, namely that establishing the true picture of health and disease requires the active participation of the patient at every stage…how are we to avoid losing sight of the person in the midst of bleeping machines and flickering computer screens? It is to the credit of the authors of this book that they have so sensibly and lucidly provided an answer.'

• 1. Information gathering. 2. Developing a narrative: Mr Daniels. 3. Assessing suicidal risk: Arthur Wrigley. 4. An overdose: Mary Brown. 5. Fear of becoming fat: Jane Morgan. 6. A domestic dispute: Mr Rogers. 7. A blackout at work: Mr Pillay. 8. A solicitor's request: Mr Loyola. 9. Fear of going out: Mrs Reiss. 10. I have no longer a mind of my own: George Forrester. 11. My house is bugged: Mr Butler. 12. A panic attack: Mrs Woolfe. 13. I've felt different all my life: Miss Jordash. 14. A poor historian: Mr David Stone.

Maurice Greenberg is Head of the Student Counselling Service, University College London, Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust and the Royal Free Hospital and a member of The Group Analytic Practice, London. Sukhwinder Singh Shergill is a Wellcome Advanced Training Fellow and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry, London. George Szmukler is Consultant Psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. Digby Tantam is Clinical Professor of Psychotherapy at the University of Sheffield, Honorary Consultant Psychotherapist and Psychiatrist, Community Health Sheffield NHS Trust, and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Conflict and Reconciliation

`This book serves to remind us that in psychiatry the diagnosis, course, treatment and outcome of disorders rest heavily on the extraordinarily complex and sensitive relationship between doctor and patient…with its emphasis on narrative, meaning, the relationship between subjective experience and objective reality, [it] reasserts the primary truth of medicine, namely that establishing the true picture of health and disease requires the active participation of the patient at every stage…how are we to avoid losing sight of the person in the midst of bleeping machines and flickering computer screens? It is to the credit of the authors of this book that they have so sensibly and lucidly provided an answer.'

• 1. Information gathering. 2. Developing a narrative: Mr Daniels. 3. Assessing suicidal risk: Arthur Wrigley. 4. An overdose: Mary Brown. 5. Fear of becoming fat: Jane Morgan. 6. A domestic dispute: Mr Rogers. 7. A blackout at work: Mr Pillay. 8. A solicitor's request: Mr Loyola. 9. Fear of going out: Mrs Reiss. 10. I have no longer a mind of my own: George Forrester. 11. My house is bugged: Mr Butler. 12. A panic attack: Mrs Woolfe. 13. I've felt different all my life: Miss Jordash. 14. A poor historian: Mr David Stone.

Maurice Greenberg is Head of the Student Counselling Service, University College London, Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust and the Royal Free Hospital and a member of The Group Analytic Practice, London. Sukhwinder Singh Shergill is a Wellcome Advanced Training Fellow and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry, London. George Szmukler is Consultant Psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. Digby Tantam is Clinical Professor of Psychotherapy at the University of Sheffield, Honorary Consultant Psychotherapist and Psychiatrist, Community Health Sheffield NHS Trust, and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Conflict and Reconciliation

`This book serves to remind us that in psychiatry the diagnosis, course, treatment and outcome of disorders rest heavily on the extraordinarily complex and sensitive relationship between doctor and patient…with its emphasis on narrative, meaning, the relationship between subjective experience and objective reality, [it] reasserts the primary truth of medicine, namely that establishing the true picture of health and disease requires the active participation of the patient at every stage…how are we to avoid losing sight of the person in the midst of bleeping machines and flickering computer screens? It is to the credit of the authors of this book that they have so sensibly and lucidly provided an answer.'

• 1. Information gathering. 2. Developing a narrative: Mr Daniels. 3. Assessing suicidal risk: Arthur Wrigley. 4. An overdose: Mary Brown. 5. Fear of becoming fat: Jane Morgan. 6. A domestic dispute: Mr Rogers. 7. A blackout at work: Mr Pillay. 8. A solicitor's request: Mr Loyola. 9. Fear of going out: Mrs Reiss. 10. I have no longer a mind of my own: George Forrester. 11. My house is bugged: Mr Butler. 12. A panic attack: Mrs Woolfe. 13. I've felt different all my life: Miss Jordash. 14. A poor historian: Mr David Stone.