Introduction to the Special Issue on International Clinical Psychology

We briefly describe the content of the six research articles selected by peer review for this, the first special issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology devoted to international clinical psychology. Two of the articles address general scientific issues—illusory mental health and a theory of anorexia nervosa—not considered specific to any particular cultural setting. One article examines social anxiety in three different Western societies. One considers the development of clinical psychology in a specific country, Spain. The final two articles consider two clinical problems—sexual dysfunction and Type‐I diabetes—within two different contexts in India, one Hindu, the other Moslem. The introduction concludes with some general comments on the history and present status of clinical psychology as an international field. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol.