title: [Definition of psychotherapy from a methodologic viewpoint].
abstract: Psychotherapy is the psychological treatment of disturbed person-environment relationships, associations or connections which are learned in a lifelong process of socialization. Accordingly, psychotherapy is a process of learning for the patient and a process of educating for the therapeutist, a process which is controlled by specialists in the case of children as well as adults with serious psychic disorders and which is usually a means of self-education in the case of subjects with slight psychic disorders. The primary objective of psychotherapy is to modify both the attitude and behavior in the sense of improving a subject's ability to fulfill his duties in society.
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D011584:Psychology; D011613:Psychotherapy; D009626:Terminology as Topic
vernacular_title: Zur Begriffsbestimmung der Psychotherapie unter methodischem Gesichtspunkt.