As a 1st-year graduate student and new convert to clinical neuropsychology, the second book I purchased in this exciting area was the first edition of Heilman and Valenstein's “Clinical Neuropsychology” published in 1979. It will come as no surprise to most readers that the first book I purchased was Lezak's first edition of “Neuropsychological Assessment,” published 3 years earlier, and of course a required text for our graduate course. As a teacher of that very same course over the past 18 years, I have recommended the various editions of both these texts to my students as the “standard” texts, a practice I imagine is shared world-wide. Thus, at one level it seems almost unnecessary to write a review of such a classic text, and at the same time to do it justice is a humbling task which I have no hope of fulfilling. All I can do is give a small taste of this latest offering edited by two of the great neurologists (and neuropsychologists) of modern times.

Readers of this review will fall into two categories; those new to clinical neuropsychology who want to know which books they should spend their inadequate text book budgets on, and those who have been in the field for some time and very likely already possess one or more of the previous editions of the book. For this group, the primary concern is whether they can fit another book on their already groaning book shelves, and if they do add this edition will it provide sufficient added information to make the purchase worthwhile. My response to both these groups of readers is to go ahead and purchase this fourth edition, firstly for reasons that I will briefly set out below, and secondly because there comes a point in the lives of editors when they simply refuse to take on a task as mammoth as this again, and I predict that there may never be a fifth edition, at least not with Heilman and Valenstein as willing editors. The fourth edition may therefore become a collector's item.

For new and old readers, this text describes in detail the classical neuropsychological disorders, and includes new “classics” as old classics become re-categorised and better understood. These descriptions are informed by research findings and include the neurology, neuroanatomy and neuropathology of the main disorders as well as describing the neuropsychological impairments, usually with a broad description of how these impairments are assessed. Each chapter is entirely independent of the other chapters, and a common series of chapter section headings are not used, allowing each chapter to follow a structure that fits the demands of that specific topic. In total the 21 chapters are written by 34 authors, all experts in their fields.

The book as a whole has been well structured. The editors' introduction is similar to their previous edition introduction but with the addition of some salient comments on the computational models and functional imaging techniques that seem almost to be flooding the neuropsychology research literature in recent years. Their brief but wise comments on the limitations of current functional MRI methods as a means of understanding the relationships of brain to higher cognitive functions serve as a caution to the new cluster of neuropsychologists and cognitive psychologists who may be seduced into thinking the research findings emanating from these exciting new technologies supersede previous knowledge gleaned from more pedestrian assessment methods. This introduction thus provides a firm footing for the following 20 chapters where evidence from a wide range of investigative methods, along with varied theories and hypotheses, are used to build a multidimensional picture of brain–behavior relationships.

As a generalization, where authors of chapters include at least one of the authors of the same chapter in the third edition, the revisions are often relatively minor, although always with some new findings described, as well as one or more new sections, usually including new information on research flowing out of the fMRI literature, for example. However, 11 chapters are written by new authors, and many of these are on new topics, or topics combined in a new (and more functional) manner. Of particular note is the much expanded section of six chapters on disorders that come under the language or aphasia umbrella. The introductory chapter for this section by David Caplan titled “Aphasic Syndromes” provides a thought-provoking essay on syndromes generally and the classic and modern ways of thinking about syndromes of aphasia in particular. Caplan projects an exciting vision of the future of aphasia research given the new interaction of classical neurology with the wide ranging and increasingly sophisticated behavioral and imaging methods now available. The following five chapters on different language disorders are complex, but provide clear descriptions, often with excellent diagrams, and up-to-date research reviews of the field. Clearly, chapters such as these are written for the more experienced neuropsychologist, and may be too detailed for many undergraduate students.

There are, however, many chapters in the book that I would recommend to undergraduates and experienced clinical neuropsychologists alike if they wish to discover the most important clinical facts about a disorder, as well as gaining a reasonably balanced view of current theory and research. The chapter titled “Neglect and Related Disorders” written by the two editors and Robert Watson, is an excellent example of such a chapter. This chapter has been revised with each edition of the book—for example the section on neurorehabilitation has been up-dated to reflect recent research discoveries—but remains arguably the best general description of neglect ever written. The chapters titled “The Callosal Syndromes,” “The Frontal Lobes,” and “Amnestic Disorders,” also written by at least one of the authors of the same chapters in the previous edition, similarly provide a sound and broad description of the topic with the addition of relevant new research-based information. There are many other chapters with the same attributes. A winning feature of this edition is the inclusion of some entirely new topics, including a chapter on the fascinating anosognosia class of disorders, one titled “Hallucinations and Related Conditions,” and another titled “Pharmacotherapy of Cognition.”

In conclusion, this fourth edition of a classic text is a very readable and contemporary mix of old (but updated) favorites, completely new chapters on topics also found in the previous edition, and chapters on completely new topics. In the tradition of books published by Oxford University Press, it is a beautiful book, and although a little too heavy (in both senses of the word) and thought-provoking to read in bed, it is certainly eminently more satisfying (and more reliable) than surfing the neuroscience web pages. I have no compunction in recommending that any serious student of clinical neuropsychology, whether new to the game or near retirement, takes out a second mortgage if necessary to purchase this book for their own shelves.