“Writing a book on clinical psychiatry has certain peculiarities. It must be aware of the truly impressive developments that have taken place in the field over the past few decades without being carried away by them and drifting away from what its title indicates, namely clinical psychiatry. All relevant knowledge is useful only when it serves the ultimate goal, the relief of the psychiatric patient, and all knowledge is better utilized when it passes through the filter of experience, an experience gained from a long and lasting relationship with the mentally ill, a relationship of genuine interest. I hope that this adherence to the triptych of knowledge-experience-interest is reflected in the pages of the book.”