This volume offers a critical evaluation of seven major paradigms in psychiatry that have made significant contributions to our current under standing of human behavior and psychiatric disorder. It was stimulated by a meeting held in November, 1978. We met at Salishan Lodge, Oregon, to discuss some of the theoretical orientations in behavioral sciences which serve as a base for contemporary psychopathology. Each major paradigm is represented by both an advocate as well as a critic. Advocates of a position had each agreed to be criticized by an individual who may not have been particularly sympathetic to the paradigm being presented. Furthermore, the entire group of participants had ample time for discussion with both the proponent and the critic. The papers in this volume were completed following that meeting, and each author has had the benefit of the criticism and discussion. The editors believe that the unusual array of talented scientists and clinicians have made an important contribution to clinical science by elaborating their positions in the face of open discussion and are proud to be part of this body of work. We wish to thank each of the participants for helping to sustain a very high level of critical scholarly discourse, which provided the right ethos for probing some of the major conceptual models of psychopathology."