This book is about four ways of using the consultation in primary health care. One ofthem is very familiar, the other three a little less so. But they should all be as much a part of the repertoire of doctor or nurse as examining some system of the body or relieving pain and discomfort. If each is not used when appropriate, the full potential of the consultation is not achieved. This is the practical message of the book. Simultaneously it is concerned with the more theoretical problems of clarifying the role of the generalist in contemporary medicine and of relating it to the wider world of...