Book review

Conclusion

TheDSM-III Training Guide and TheDSM-III Case Book are useful teaching and learning devices, but prey to the difficulties of the parent volume from which they spring. DSM-III alleges to be an atheoretical, descriptive diagnostic system. Yet careful examination reveals that it inherently developed from certain theoretical biases. It would have been more consistent and honest with itself had its editors acknowledged the inevitable and instead aimed for theoretical accord. Various degrees of inferential observations could have been used comprehensively, so long as each level of inference was acknowledged. Then the document could have expressed a biosocial-dynamic consensus of clinical thinking. Hopefully, this will be reflected in the revisions that produce DSM-IV. The efforts of group psychotherapists, however, should be aimed at upgrading axis II. An enriched personality disorders section will aid treatment planning and facilitate the education of clinicians, in general, about the usefulness of group psychotherapy.