Clinical Psychology

modes of clinical assessment for a variety of mental
health professionals (including psychiatrists).

The Crisis Interview

Increasingly, clinicians have been functioning in
novel settings, including storefront clinics and tele-
phone hotlines specializing in advice or comfort to
drug abusers, to parents fearful of abusing their chil-
dren, or to persons who are just lonely. Many of
the usual“rules”of interviewing or the usual cate-
gorizations of interviews are blurred in these
instances. However, the basic principles remain.
Take the example of a mother who, during the
absence of her husband, became terrified that she
would abuse her small son. The following tele-
phone conversation ensued:

MOTHER: My God, help me. Is this the place...

that...I mean, I need somebody.

Tell me.

VOLUNTEER: Yes, it is. Tell me what it is. Go ahead

and talk.

MOTHER:I’m so nervous. I feel like I’ll bust.

Danny is crying, and my husband isn’t

here, and I’ve got to stop him. I can’t

stand it any longer.

VOLUNTEER: OK, I think I understand. Are you

alone?

MOTHER: Yes, but I can’t handle it.

VOLUNTEER: I know. And you’re very upset. But I

think we can talk it over. Where are

you? What’s your address?

T A B L E 6-2 A Typical Case-History Outline

1. Identifying data, including name, sex, occupation, address, date and place of birth, religion, and education.


2. Reason for coming to the agency and expectations for service.


3. Present situation, such as description of daily behavior and any recent or impending changes.


4. Family constellation (family of orientation), including descriptions of mother, father, and other family members
   and the respondent’s role in the family in which he or she grew up.


5. Early recollections, descriptions of earliest clear events and their surroundings.


6. Birth and development, including ages of walking and talking, problems compared with other children, and the
   person’s view of his or her early experiences.


7. Health, including childhood and later diseases and injuries, problems with drugs or alcohol, and comparison of
   one’s body with others.


8. Education and training, including subjects of special interest and achievement.


9. Work record, including reasons for changing jobs and attitudes toward work.


10. Recreation and interests, including volunteer work, reading, and the respondent’s report of adequacy of self-
    expression and pleasures.


11. Sexual development, covering first awareness, kinds of sexual activities, and view of the adequacy of sexual
    expressions.


12. Marital and family data, covering major events and what led to them, and comparison of present family of birth
    and orientation.


13. Self-description, including strengths, weaknesses, and ideals.


14. Choices and turning points in life, a review of the respondent’s most important decisions and changes, including
    the single most important happening.


15. View of the future, including what the subject would like to see happen next year and in five or ten years, and
    what is necessary for these events to happen.


16. Any further material the respondent may see as omitted from the history.

SOURCE: Norman D. Sundberg,Assessment of Persons, copyright © 1977, pp. 97–98. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

176 CHAPTER 6