I have to confess that I had never come across this publication before. When the editor offered it to me I assumed that it was a dictionary of psychiatry. There are innumerable dictionaries of psychiatry, the doyen of which is probably the eighth edition of Campbell (2004) (RR 2004/298). I was not sure that the world really needed another, but I was happy to have a look at it just in case. What it is, however, is exactly what it says on the label: a list of words (and abbreviations and phrases) likely to be used by American psychiatrists, in straight alphabetical order, with absolutely no definitions or explanations.
The word “American” needs emphasising. There are various things dividing the American and the British peoples – religiosity, gun laws and the inability to brew any beer except fizzy lager are some that spring immediately to mind. One of the most potent, however, is the difference in attitude towards Latinate words between Noah Webster and Dr Johnson. Webster thought that a word like “behaviour” should be spelled the way it was pronounced, and his example has been followed ever since. I am not sure exactly how Johnson pronounced “behaviour”, but he clearly thought that words looked more impressive with an extra “u” tucked into them, and his example has been followed ever since. Fond though (or even “tho”) I am of Dr Johnson, I must admit that if I had a free choice my sympathies would be with Webster, but as it is, readers in the UK should note that this book has no truck with British spellings.
Clinicians frequently tape their notes. There is, therefore, a whole sub‐profession of medical audio‐transcribers who spend their days, earphones on, trying to convert recorded mumbles into coherent reports. A list of all the specialised terms likely to be used would clearly be extremely useful to such people. As this is the fourth edition (I don't think Webster used “forth” though, to be consistent, he should have done) there are obviously enough such transcribers around to make a viable market. I am not sure that many other people will need it, so most libraries probably do not need to consider buying. I did not get the CD‐ROM or access to the single‐user download to review, but I would have thought that, for most medical transcribers, these would be the most useful formats.
A considerable proportion of the book is taken up by appendices, of varying value. The list of DSM diagnoses in code number order is obviously extremely useful. The list of psychological tests and their abbreviations ought to be integrated in the main body of the work. I disbelieve in most of the phobias – I think that therapists just make them up for the fun of it, and there are so many rapidly changing slang terms for drug users that the list here is inevitably incomplete and out of date.
Most public reference libraries ought to have a copy of Campbell, or some similar dictionary, and a copy of DSM‐IV (American Psychiatric Association, 2004). I cannot imagine that many libraries will find a use for this book, though clearly there are a lot of American psychiatrists' offices which would benefit from having a copy in some format or other.
