Fish's Clinical Psychopathology: Signs and Symptoms in Psychiatry

by Patricia R. Casey, Brendan Kelly

Psychopathology lies at the centre of effective psychiatric practice and mental health care, and Fish's Clinical Psychopathology has shaped the training and clinical practice of psychiatrists for over fifty years.

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.

Genres: Psychiatry, Psychology, Nonfiction, Medicine, Mental Health

148 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Patricia Rosarie Casey

Reviews

[Tarun Verma · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is not only old but lacks explanations in terms of contemporary concepts and theories. I do not see it as scientific and is irrelevant for any clinical psychology student. The text is psychiatric in form and presentation and may be suitable for psychiatry students and practitioners. Any text on psychopathology in 21st century which doesn't give concrete psychological explanations (theoretical or empirical) for signs and symptoms is redundant. This book promotes disease models of mental disorders and encourage neurological bases to symptoms. The book is useless when seen in respect to current diagnostic systems like DSM-5 and ICD-11. The phenomenology of symptoms should be more psychological, than morbid.

[Neal Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short and accessible overview of current thinking on psychiatric disorders. As expected, this fourth edition concentrates on the standard classifications: the DSM (the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic & Statistical Manual Diagnostic of Mental Disorders) and the ICD (the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases), but it does take a bigger picture and, when talking about the upcoming 11th revision of ICD, is honest enough to say that the changes have taken place “against a background of concern about the validity of most of the categories in the classifications heretofore.”

[Gabriela Paduret · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought the book as I saw it recommended for newly starting Psychiatry Trainees and Medical Students. However, I found that it's not organised in a natural, flowing way and the language was a bit too rigid and sentences unnecessarily complex. A sentence that could well have 7 words, ended up with 30. 5 seconds to read id, 30 seconds to take apart the phrase and figure out what they're saying.

[Acpsm Aen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una introducción de psicopatología descriptiva para iniciados, que pronto quedará corta si se profundiza en la materia con rigor.

Disponible en:
https://archive.org/details/FishsClin...

[Sylvain Meslin]

Was pretty useful. Essentially lists out key symptoms and syndromes that are seen in Psychiatry. A lot is out of date but there are some timeless insights that make it worth the read.

[Rahul Meena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written.

[Riham · Rating 4 out of 5]

the book is old but it's the best book introducing psychopathology
recommended for psychiatry candidates

[Simone Pompili · Rating 2 out of 5]

Non mi ha convinto del tutto. Certamente utile ma credo sia complicato per i neofiti e, al contrario, a tratti troppo semplicistico per chi già mastica la materia

[Janet Lam · Rating 4 out of 5]

First few chapters were interesting. Provides an overarching structure of psychopathology and clear definitions of terms.