Seymour L. Halleck – författare

A few months before the final manuscript of this book was sent to the publisher, Dr. Karl A. Menninger died, shortly before his ninety­ seventh birthday. Thus, when I sat down to write this preface, he was very much on my mind. I remembered that it had been almost forty years since he wrote A Manual for Psychiatric Case Study, not one of his well-known but probably the most practical of his books. The psycho­ analytically trained part of me began to wonder what had motivated me to write a book on a topic so similar to that which had earlier drawn the attention of my revered teacher. There is no pressing need for another book on psychiatric evaluation; furthermore, evaluation is a very diffi­ cult subject to write about in a straightforward way. Whatever my unconscious motivations may have been, I hope they were less significant than those of which I was aware. I wrote this book mainly as part of an effort to reverse certain trends in psychiatric educa­ tion. In the last decade psychiatrists have increasingly been trained in an environment that emphasizes brief evaluation of patients and de­ emphasizes teaching about the complexity of human behavior and ex­ perience. Trainees no longer study psychiatric evaluation in a systematic manner. They take fewer intensive histories, fill out forms instead of describing the patient''s mental status, and, with rare exceptions, are not taught how to conceptualize biological and psychosocial interactions.

A few months before the final manuscript of this book was sent to the publisher, Dr. Karl A. Menninger died, shortly before his ninety­ seventh birthday. Thus, when I sat down to write this preface, he was very much on my mind. I remembered that it had been almost forty years since he wrote A Manual for Psychiatric Case Study, not one of his well-known but probably the most practical of his books. The psycho­ analytically trained part of me began to wonder what had motivated me to write a book on a topic so similar to that which had earlier drawn the attention of my revered teacher. There is no pressing need for another book on psychiatric evaluation; furthermore, evaluation is a very diffi­ cult subject to write about in a straightforward way. Whatever my unconscious motivations may have been, I hope they were less significant than those of which I was aware. I wrote this book mainly as part of an effort to reverse certain trends in psychiatric educa­ tion. In the last decade psychiatrists have increasingly been trained in an environment that emphasizes brief evaluation of patients and de­ emphasizes teaching about the complexity of human behavior and ex­ perience. Trainees no longer study psychiatric evaluation in a systematic manner. They take fewer intensive histories, fill out forms instead of describing the patient's mental status, and, with rare exceptions, are not taught how to conceptualize biological and psychosocial interactions.

Once upon a time only forensic psychiatrists had much to do with law and the legal system. Now, hardly a day passes in the life of a clinician without some significant encounter with the interface between the law and the practice of psychiatry. That interface extends all the way from the general regulation of clinical practice to the specifics of clinical man­ agement of individual patients. It includes, like the chapters of this book, such important topics as informed consent, right to treatment, privilege and confidentiality, patients'' rights, competency, psychiatric testimony, malpractice, and liability. Dr. Halleck is one of the professions'' most distinguished thinkers and authors in the field of psychiatry and law, and is this year''s recipient of the coveted Isaac Ray Award of the American Psychiatric Association. Having spent his entire academic and professional life deeply involved in the clinical practice of psychiatry, he is particularly well suited to understand and respond to the clinician''s need for a clear and concise elucidation of those areas of psychiatry and law which are involved in the daily work of psychiatrists and all mental health professionals.