ABSTRACT
Very many students of psychology choose clinical psychology as a career. Dougal Mackay’s book succeeds admirably in providing an account of the current state of this rapidly changing applied area. He describes the historical development of the subject and how, in the past, clinical psychologists aimed to give a diagnostic assessment of patients with a view to establishing their pathological condition so that a psychiatrist could apply treatment. He goes on to assess clinical psychology’s evolving role, in the context of various other conceptual frameworks than the medical model. Various current theories of personality are described, with the techniques of assessment and therapy associated with them. We get the feel of a process of radical change.
