The psychiatric anamnesis is a lengthy enquiry based on the Meyerian principle that most aspects of a patient's past and present history are relevant to the diagnosis and management of psychiatric disorder. Despite widespread use by both clinicians and research workers, the anamnesis has been the subject of few investigations regarding its reliability and validity. The studies reported have not encouraged confidence in traditional history taking (Haggard et al., 1960; Wenar and Coulter, 1962; Beckett et al., 1967). The present study was carried out to investigate the reliability of the family and personal history.