This is a proactive textbook. Most textbooks report on their field. This textbook aims to give you the skills to contribute to the field.
Philosophy is about argument. Hence, through a case study approach, the reader is engaged actively in a series of both traditional and emerging lines of argument around key topics on the shared agenda of philosophy and mental health, thus developing his or her own skills to contribute to the field.
Although a large book, and covering a good deal of ground, the case study approach of the book means that while there is a strong overall structure, each chapter can be read, up to a point, independently. Thus, a reader interested in, say, personal identity, could read Chapter 28 in Part V (Philosophy of mind) without reading the whole of that part, or indeed the whole of the book. Similarly, a philosopher who wants nothing more than an introduction to psychopathology and the classification of psychiatric disorders, could get this from Chapter 3; though our hope is that he or she would then get drawn into reading other chapters to fill out particular topics.