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W. The Aduarial Description of Abnmmal Personalily. Baltimore: 5. PAUKER, J. D. identification of MMPI profile types in a female, inpatient, psychiatric setting 6. PAYNE. F. D. and WIQQINS. J. S. The effects of rule relaxation and svstem combination on Williams& Wilkins 1963. using the Marks and Seeman rules. J . eonsul. PSychO~., 1966, SO, 90. classification rates in two MMPI "cookbook" systems. J . eonsul. Ps chol.; 1968, 38, 734-736. E z p e r i d Personolily Reseurch. voY3. New York: Academic Press, 1966, pp. 133-193. 7. SINES, J. 0. Actuarial methods in rsonality assessment. In B.

Although traditional psychiatric diagnosis has been assailed by a number of authors as being an inadequate classification system (1,2, 4,5,8), it continues to show surprising re silience in the face of these onslaughts. While other investigators attempt to develop altern ative taxonomies, (3,6,7) so far no con vincing option has gained wide approval, and almost all our current information concern ing incidence, etiology and prognosis is framed in traditional diagnostic terms. As long as this situation persists it is important to continue generating information about the existing system in order to clarify its limita tions. This is particularly so if, as appears to to be the case, important policy decisions Material and MethodThe material for the study consisted of the diagnostic information available on 161 con secutive inpatient admissions to an 80-bed psy chiatric unit of a general teaching hospital. The average length of stay in this setting is 22 days. Admission and discharge diagnoses, as recorded on the Dominion Bureau of Statistics (D.B.S.) cards, were available on each patient, and these formed the data for the study. In most instances the diagnoses were determined by qualified psy chiatrists or experienced psychiatric residents, although in a few cases they were made by general practitioners with admitting privileges in the Psychiatry Department. In nearly all cases the admitting and discharge diagnoses were both made by the same physician.The 161 patients generated 44 separate diag noses. In order to reduce this to more manage able proportions it was decided to collapse these into an 8-category

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