Abstract
This article is the outcome of a comparison of the ICD-10 (International Classifica tion of Diseases, 10th Revision) and DSM-III-R (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Third Edition, Revised). The study indicates that the ICD-10 has made great progress in widening the international scope of contemporary systems of classifica tion in psychiatry and that the inclusion of certain cultural elements into a classificatory system could enrich its worldwide perspective.