Book excerpt: The ISSP Manual of Sports Psychiatry is the first text describing the role of a sports psychiatrist. Covering both individual as well as team sports, contact and non-contact, from childhood through late adulthood, the manual describes the role of sports in our culture and details the psychiatric interventions associated with players and their teams. The editors take a broad focus, covering topics from neuroscience-psychiatric and psychological aspects, performance enhancement, team chemistry and dynamics, organizational issues to working with medical, orthopedic/surgical and neurologic colleagues to provide comprehensive prevention and treatment to enhance well-being and performance. This text will be invaluable to medical and psychiatric physicians, psychologists and other mental health professionals, as well as athletes, trainers, leagues and their commissioners, sports writers-and even "fans" anxious to understand what is going on with their teams.