Ever since its publication, the Dutch textbook of psychiatry (Leerboek psychiatrie) edited by Hengeveld, van Balkom, van Heeringen and Sabbe has been used to teach psychiatry at the medical schools of many Dutch and Flemish universities. The textbook has been widely praised by both teachers and students. With an ever-growing influx of foreign students at Dutch universities more courses are currently taught in English, so the call for English-language reading materials will only increase. This has created the need for a psychiatry textbook in English. There are, of course, psychiatry textbooks available in English. But none of the existing textbooks seem to fulfil the training demands of the Dutch system. Some textbooks lack consistent editing across chapters, others cater to training psychiatrists rather than medical students. Yet others are not sufficiently in sync with contemporary psychiatry, or are incompatible with the DSM classification system. Also, the subject of psychiatry and the law within the Dutch context is conspicuously yet understandably lacking. This is why the Department of Psychiatry at the medical school of the University of Groningen initiated a translation of most of the Leerboek psychiatrie. It includes chapters chosen to reflect the curriculum of the University of Groningen, plus a selection of other essential topics. The present Textbook of Psychiatry; A Concise Guide to Psychiatry in The Netherlands consists of three parts: theoretical foundations of psychiatry, psychiatric disorders, and selected psychiatric topics. The textbook covers all the materials thoroughly. This English-language version meets the same standards as the Dutch version and will hopefully find its way to more medical faculties.