This new edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual is an important contribution to the literature. It updates psychoanalytic, psychodynamically informed classification of psychopathology, mental disorders, mental functioning, and the functioning of normal individuals as well, combining multiple theoretical and clinical perspectives in an integrated approach to diagnosis. That permits not only placing individual patients into a general category of mental illness, but also categorizing each individual personally as a unique case in which whatever particular syndrome dominates can be seen in the context of that individual’s particularities, deficits, capabilities, and resources. This diagnostic system has implications not only for the general diagnosis of illness and general categories of treatment, but also for highly individualized ways of approaching individuals psychologically. And that is of enormous clinical importance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)