Rob Poole is Professor of Social Psychiatry and Co-Director of the Centre For Mental Health and Society, Bangor University. Prior to this he was a community psychiatrist in Liverpool and North East Wales. He is a past Vice President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and past Chair of RCPsych in Wales. His main interests are clinical skills and in developing good services for deprived and marginalised populations. He has published extensively and he writes a popular personal website on mental health, Khrushchev's Shoe (robgpoole.co.uk).

Part I. What Am I Trying to Find Out Here?: 1. Diagnosis; 2. History; 3. Mental state examination and psychopathology; 4. Cognitive state examination and organic disease; Part II. The Main Principles of One-to-One Interviewing: 5. Office-based psychiatric assessment; 6. Understanding and managing relationships with patients; Part III. Difficult Interviews: 7. Difficulties relating to psychosis; 8. Unpopular patients; Part IV. Self-Awareness: 9. Values and beliefs; 10. Culture; 11. Who should I be?; Part V. Complicated Interviews: 12. Interviewing with other team members; 13. Interviewing families and other informants; 14. In the community; 15. Fragmented interviewing and assessment; 16. 'Impossible' assessments; Part VI. Developmental Assessments: 17. Neurodevelopmental assessment; 18. Personality; Part VII. Drawing it All Together: 19. Risk and safety; 20. Record keeping and reports.

An engaging and accessible guide to developing interpersonal clinical skills in the interviewing and assessment of psychiatric patients.