A careful reevaluation of 24 patients diagnosed as suffering brief reactive psychosis failed to validate this diagnosis according to DSM-III criteria. Fourteen of the patients had other psychiatric disorders that could explain their symptoms, and 8 had psychosis lasting longer than 2 weeks; the precipitating events were unclear or had uncertain relationships to the psychoses. The criteria proposed for the DSM-III-R do not facilitate the diagnosis of brief reactive psychosis but perhaps make it even more confusing.