[Psychotherapeutic care and public health]

In 1992 the German Medical Association had passed a resolution in order to adapt the specialized training of physicians to future demands. This implied the introduction of the new special field of "psychotherapeutic medicine" and a redefinition of the special field of "psychiatry and psychotherapy". The expectable impacts of these innovations will be discussed regarding future perspectives of aims and structures of psychotherapeutic care as well as of interdisciplinary research and cooperation with other health-professionals, patients, and self-help-organisations. In particular, an argumentation is presented, how psychotherapy can be enabled to specific contributions to the promotion of the new public health-paradigm in Germany.