[Diagnosis and indications in psychotherapy].

The more recent literature on the reliability and the status of psychiatric diagnosis is reviewed and confronted with the latest experimental results on the indication for psychotherapy. Accordingly it can be hypothesized that at least for outpatient psychiatry/psychotherapy there is no meaningful relationship between diagnosis and indication. Diagnoses do not imply indications for psychotherapy. This assumption is verified by the results of an outpatient fieldstudy and the implications are discussed.