Let’s say that you knew that you would soon be stranded in a locale where you would be the sole neuropsychologist, needing to assess and diagnose both young and old patients. If you had to pick just one reference book to take with you, which neuropsychology text would you bring? According to one survey (Sullivan & Ryan, Reference Sullivan and Ryan2004), the top three ranking books that neuropsychologists consider “essential” are: Neuropsychological Assessment by Lezak¹ (1995; now Lezak, Howieson & Loring, Reference Lezak2004), the Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests by Spreen and Strauss² (1998; now Strauss, Spreen & Scherman, Reference Spreen and Strauss2006), and Clinical Neuropsychology by Heilman and Valenstein³ (1993; now 2003). Pediatric neuropsychologists might also add Baron’s Neuropsychological Evaluation of the Child (Reference Baron2004). There are certainly other important books, but each listed above is different in scope, purpose, and the emphasis placed on theory, psychometrics, and clinical practice. Which would you pack? Or, is there a new contender that should take its place in your essential neuropsychological library, one that will likely become a neuropsychology classic?

The Textbook of Clinical Neuropsychology, edited by Morgan and Ricker, is an incredible undertaking, evident firstly by its size. It has over 1000 pages of state-of-the art neuropsychological knowledge, and an astounding 49 chapters, covering both pediatric and adult case material and clinical syndromes. The Textbook also provides an overview of clinical neuropsychology as a science and discipline. Foundational chapters precede clinical sections and explain the history, philosophy, and training models/approaches of current neuropsychological theory and practice. Topics as diverse as neuroanatomy, neuroimaging, forensics, ethics, cross-cultural assessment, and rehabilitation are included, but the book never strays from its main focus on clinical practice and applications. Thus, the Textbook is both a comprehensive reference text regarding the existing scientific and theoretical literature, and a desk reference clinical practice. It provides the answers to two deceptively simple (but ultimately quite complex) questions: “What is neuropsychology?”, and “How does one practice neuropsychology for different patients and clinical problems?”.

The well-designed and organized book follows a logical progression from history and foundational scientific and clinical concepts and landmarks, to an overview of clinical disorders, closing with important topics in neuropsychology. Clinical chapters on neuropsychological disorders follow a general format and include a comprehensive literature review. Many chapters also include case vignettes with neurological and medical information, and actual test scores. In other clinical volumes, patient test data are sometimes omitted even though these constitute a fundamental and necessary part of understanding the practice of neuropsychology at its most basic level. The inclusion of test scores along with examples of neuropsychological batteries applied to different disorders is one of the book’s most useful features and a major asset.

Chapters are grouped into eight main sections, including history and scientific foundations, training models (6 chapters), disorders of childhood (11 chapters) and adulthood (22 chapters), and concluding with sections on technology (3 chapters), forensics (3 chapters), ethics (2 chapters), and rehabilitation (2 chapters). Clearly, some sections, such as the 22 chapters on adult disorders, could have formed comprehensive stand-alone books in their own right; these cover normal aging, dementia, and cerebrovascular disorders (ischemia, hemorrhage, vascular malformations, vascular dementia), as well as infections, toxicity, anoxia/hypoxia, traumatic brain injury (TBI) (post-concussive syndrome, mild, moderate, and severe TBI, and sports concussion), Huntington’s disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, HIV infection, and tumors. Epilepsy is also well covered with chapters on classification, psychosocial aspects, and surgery/imaging. Chapters on adult developmental disorders typically not included in neuropsychology reference texts are also covered (i.e., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, learning disorders, and schizophrenia).

The pediatric section is almost 300 pages, and exceeds many existing pediatric neuropsychology reference books in scope and breadth. This section covers disorders such as epilepsy, brain injury, brain tumors, autism spectrum disorders, low birth weight, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, hydrocephalus, spina bifida, and nonverbal learning disability. Stefanatos and Joe provide a comprehensive review chapter on autistic disorder that I have read a second and also another chapter on pervasive developmental disorders, including a specific review of the increasingly diagnosed PDD-NOS. Together, these two chapters of over 120 pages and 1500 references are truly a book within a book, and could easily become the sine qua non of autism spectrum disorder references for neuropsychologists; an outstanding accomplishment among many outstanding chapters.

Despite this massive breadth of material, the Textbook has a unified style and clarity that makes it possible for the reader to read it cover-to-cover, without encountering choppiness or abrupt topic changes. Indeed, a cover-to-cover read would be an excellent exercise for trainees, but also for more experienced neuropsychologists desiring a refresher course on the practice of neuropsychological assessment. It could also be used on a case-by-case basis to review a typical neuropsychological presentation for a specific disorder or to update their knowledge about a specific condition. The audience for the Textbook is large, as this volume has utility for those at every point along the continuum of neuropsychological training and experience.

The intention, according to the series editor, Bieliauskas, was to provide a comprehensive review of the field of neuropsychology. The Textbook clearly accomplishes this goal: it is indeed encyclopedic in its coverage of clinical neuropsychology. However, unlike an encyclopedia, it tells the story of neuropsychology as a developing clinical field and as a scientific discipline, while also demonstrating the “how to” of neuropsychological assessment through detailed case studies embedded in chapters describing major clinical disorders. Therefore, it also serves as an applied manual about how to conduct assessments of specific patient groups, often including examples of recommendations and interventions pertinent for specific disorders. The Textbook gets full points for interest, importance, thoroughness, and usefulness to the intended audience.

This book could be used in several ways: 1) as a primer and graduate textbook on neuropsychology, to be read cover-to-cover by neuropsychology trainees; 2) as a comprehensive clinical sourcebook for use by practicing neuropsychologists in their clinical work, and 3) as a foundational reference for the field of neuropsychology that documents the state, practice, and philosophy of contemporary clinical neuropsychology, from which future comprehensive conceptualizations of neuropsychology as a discipline, practice and science will be formed. In addition, and this is no minor point, this is a book for pediatric neuropsychologists as well as for those who serve adults, including geriatric neuropsychologists, and as such it is a lifespan reference text for neurocognitive and neurobehavioral disorders. These authors have absolutely met and exceeded the standard for a reference book of this type.

Outstanding chapters are simply too many to list. In writing this review I began with a draft covering chapters that I thought were particularly well written and comprehensive – but I soon realized that the draft was growing out of proportion, and that the list of outstanding chapters was almost an exact duplicate of the table of contents. Why this is the case becomes quite clear when one examines the list of contributors. This list includes some of the most distinguished, knowledgeable, and respected experts in the field of neuropsychology, taken from a wide range of different subspecialties in the field. These are contributors whose credentials and expertise are impeccable. That Morgan and Ricker enlisted their contributions for a single book is a monumental accomplishment, and clearly reflected in the quality of their individual contributions.

Book reviews always include a few quibbles, and this review is no different. However, none detract significantly from this scholarly accomplishment. One limitation is the brief coverage of intervention and rehabilitation, covered in the two last chapters. Similarly, coverage of ethics and cross-cultural issues is found in chapters 46 and 47 of this 49-chapter book, but I would have preferred to see these featured earlier, as they set the stage for what follows. Both chapters are excellent, and both are a must-read for all clinical neuropsychological practitioners. Lastly, the organization of color figures and captions is somewhat cumbersome because the color plates are grouped together, rather than presented throughout the text, and the figure captions are very beginning of the book. The figures themselves are quite impressive, so hopefully another approach that is easier on the reader will be used in future editions.

A book this comprehensive is invariably very large, and this one is probably at the limit of practicality for its size. However, there is nothing that I would suggest removing, and I anticipate that future editions will entail difficult decisions about how to accommodate content in an ever-expanding field. A problem with a book this good is that one wants even more coverage, at the same level of excellence. Perhaps a future edition could expand the pediatric section to parallel the adult section by covering similar disorders (stroke, movement disorders, etc.), and the adult section could expand coverage of psychiatric disorders – but this minor criticism is greatly tempered by the excellent chapter by Marcopulos on assessing persons with schizophrenia; its inclusion in a clinical neuropsychology reference is a landmark in the understanding that this developmental neurological condition requires neuropsychological assessment, follow-up, and intervention.

Lastly, as noted in the Foreword by Brandt, the Textbook is a scholarly reference text that nevertheless shows its humanism and concern with the welfare of patients and families, the heart of clinical neuropsychology. In the daily intricacies of assessment and practice, clinical neuropsychologists may forget the essential difference between clinical neuropsychology as a science and practice, and other branches of neuropsychology (e.g., theoretical, experimental). However, this book was clearly written for practitioners working directly with people affected by neuropsychological conditions, and the voices of the authors and contributors are indeed the voices of clinical neuropsychologists. Overall, this volume’s contributors are clearly among the best and brightest in the field, embody the scientist-practitioner model, and, as a welcome bonus, provide clinical case studies that bring their respective clinical disorders and neuropsychological approaches to life. Thus, the Textbook highlights the humanism in clinical neuropsychology while emphasizing that this is a discipline firmly rooted in science. The Textbook of Clinical Neuropsychology is a tremendous accomplishment, and this book is destined to become one of neuropsychology’s most important classic reference texts.

So what do you pack for your new locale? Pack your Textbook of Clinical Neuropsychology, and make sure you bring an extra-large suitcase, because you will be carrying almost all the accumulated knowledge of an entire discipline. with you.