Psychodiagnosis ─ Selected Papers

Psychodiagnosis was first published in 1973.This volume brings together a collection of the important papers of the distinguished clinical psychologist Paul E. Meehl. Among the thirteen papers are two which appear for the first time in this volume. The one entitled “Why I Do Not Attend Case Conferences” is likely to provoke controversy among clinical psychologists and other practitioners who participate in psychiatric case conferences, such as psychiatrists and neurologists. In this paper, Dr. Meehl presents a comprehensive critique of the methods typically followed in conducting and participating in such conferences and cites many illustrative examples of the issues under discussion. He offers specific suggestions for improving conference procedures, explaining: “I have tried to offer at least the beginnings of a constructive plan for bringing the reinforcement schedule and cognitive feedback of the psychiatric case conference somewhat closer to those which prevail in the clinicopathological conference that has been so successful as a teaching device in the non-psychiatric fields of medicine.” Also published here for the first time is a paper presenting a new statistical search method for detecting loose syndromes and classifying patients accordingly.