The manual outlines issues of propaedeutics of psychiatry, general psychopathology and private psychiatry (schizophrenia, psychosis, etc.). General psychopathology is presented taking into account the formation of an epistemological profile of the most important psychopathological symptoms and syndromes. Psychopathological phenomenology is illustrated with clinical examples from the manuals of recognized experts, which allows doctors to better understand the importance and significance of data that have become textbook. The same applies to the material in the section of private psychiatry, since the formation of the doctrine of the most important endogenous psychoses was developed as a result of the discussion of the initially obtained given by the “pioneers” of nosology, their students and followers. Such a clinical-nosological approach allows one to quite accurately determine the boundaries of individual diseases, avoiding their broad interpretation, which is extremely important for practice and the development of an adequate approach to treatment. Particular attention is paid to the correct writing of the clinical history of the disease, taking into account the identification of the main features of the patient’s mental state and the importance of obtaining only subjective, but also objective data from the medical history, compliance with legal requirements.