In the first part of this book the authors develop a conceptual framework to assist clinicians in selecting relevant clinical data. The need for this approach stems from two factors. The fact that clinicians in community mental health settings see large numbers of patients with a heterogeneous group of problems that do not easily fit into official diagnostic categories or psychodynamic formulations is compounded by the lack ofa comprehensive theory ofhuman behavior that satisfactorily integrates the four implicit conceptual models used in psychiatric clinical formulations. Although the patient is simultaneously a biological, psychological, behavioral, and social being, the clinician tends to collect and codify data from the perspective of one or some combination of these four conceptual models but seldom from all ofthem. To deal with this situation, the authors formulate a hypothesis-generating and testing approach for the initial psychiatric examination in the community and related settings. They describe 16 hypotheses useful in organizing clinical data and indicate that such an approach will assist the clinician to be more comprehensive and more efficient, will guard against premature closure in data collection , and will provide a stimulus for the exploration of relevant but neglected clinical questions. Underlying this clinical data collection approach is the concept of the patient as a customer who interacts with the dm1clan in a negotiation process. The patient not only presents a chiefcomplaint ofwhat is bothering him or her and a goal to be accomplished but also presents a request, often not elicited, as to how he or she would like the clinician to respond to help achieve the desired goal. From analysis of interviews, the authors classify patient requests into 14 categories and discuss elicitation, negotiation, and disposition of these requests. This first part of the book concludes with 2 chapters discussing crisis patterns and issues in mental health consultation. In these chapters the hypothesis-generating and testing approach to clinical data collection and the concept of the patient-as-customer are not further developed. Rather, in dealing with assessment of crisis situations and the consultation process, these discussions seem to serve as a bridge between the initial conceptual framework and the more specific problems emerging from selected target populations by placing the total clinical event in these larger contexts. For the second part of the book the authors selected the following target populations: the bereaved, the infertile couple, drug abusers (including the alcoholic), the suicidal patient, victims of violence, aggressive sexual offenders, the sexually abused, and the prostitute. In reading these chapters detailing the target populations it becomes apparent that the conceptual approach described earlier in the book is unevenly woven into their fabric. It is unfortunate that the initial concepts have not been further developed and made explicit in all of the chapters dealing with the target populations. Nevertheless, the first focus ofthe book, the initial conceptual approach, is a welcome addition to the literature. The authors’ approach shares some methodological similarities with recent developments in explorations of medical sociological field research and seems to draw a few ofits underlying assumptions about the nature ofthe patient-as-person and the basis of hypothesis generation and testing from the phenomenological movement. The second focus, the target populations, is not unwelcome, but its development is less satisfying in some instances due to the uneven use ofthe concepts described in the first section of the book. However, these chapters can serve to heighten the clinician’s awareness of the groups described and their particular problems. The discussions in the book in which the initial conceptual approach is developed and made explicit vis-#{224}-vis a given target population should not only raise the clinician’s awareness but assist him or her to use the model in clinical practice in community mental health settings. One minor irritation must be noted. Although I realize how tedious the task is, to the extent that the technical aspects of scholarship dealing with references are consistent, the reader appreciates the effort and finds format consistency useful in pursuing the topic further (at least I do). This book lacks such consistency. With the above criticism made, I would still recommend this book to the people for whom it is written, interdisciplinary groups of health care providers. Beginning practitioners in community mental health will also find it useful in several important ways.