Book excerpt: Handbook for the Assessment of Dissociation: A Clinical Guide is the first book to offer guidelines for the systematic assessment of dissociation and posttraumatic syndromes. This book provides a comprehensive overview of dissociative symptoms and disorders, as well as an introduction to the use of the SCID-D, a diagnostic interview for the dissociative disorders includes chapters on differential diagnosis, a discussion of the relationship between dissociation and trauma, and a sample patient interview serves the needs of novices in the field as well as experienced clinicians and researchers