This article describes the anatomy of the basic clinical interview, focusing on its structure, content, factors affecting it, techniques, types, patient and psychologists' expectations, reliability, and computer-assisted clinical interviews. The term “clinical interview” as used in this article refers to the assessment of personality, personality disorders, and psychopathology. Too often, clinicians rely primarily on the clinical interview as their major tool for personality assessment and diagnosis. This is often never the case among forensic psychologists who routinely consult these sources...

This article describes the anatomy of the basic clinical interview, focusing on its structure, content, factors affecting it, techniques, types, patient and psychologists' expectations, reliability, and computer-assisted clinical interviews. The term “clinical interview” as used in this article refers to the assessment of personality, personality disorders, and psychopathology. Too often, clinicians rely primarily on the clinical interview as their major tool for personality assessment and diagnosis. This is often never the case among forensic psychologists who routinely consult these sources as part of their exploration to determine fact. The article also uses the terms “client” and “patient” interchangeably.