Book excerpt: Job's Illness: Loss, Grief and Integration explores the Book of Job and examines the psychiatric interpretation of Job's illness. This book presents the story of Job to help the readers to discover the links between depression, obsessional states, and paranoia. Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of the various medical references in which Job's illness is described in terms of categories of diseases in physical medicine. This text then describes Job's insistence on what has been called his perfection is a trait seen in obsessional personalities. Other chapters consider Job's own communications about his experiences and feelings. This book discusses as well the various ways of looking upon what happens to Job in terms of therapy. The final chapter deals with the transformation of Job with qualities different from the old one and restored to health. This book is a valuable resource for clinicians, psychologists and psychotherapists.