According to the order of the USSR Ministry of Health, in 1985 the specialty “Psychotherapy” was introduced for psychiatrists. Currently, we also have qualification characteristics issued by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation for a psychotherapist and other specialists involved in the psychotherapeutic process. Despite the availability of these documents, there are no facts about what exactly a psychotherapist does in any of these documents. It is only written that the psychotherapist is engaged in “Psychotherapy”, which is already obvious. Meanwhile, in the world there are at least 100 definitions of what psychotherapy is, and about 300 psychotherapeutic schools and directions. At the same time, the doctor studies for 6 years, then another year or two studies to become a psychiatrist, and retraining in psychotherapy is provided for... 4 months, which is very little, and in the opinion of foreign colleagues, simply ridiculous. As a result, we have the fact that everyone is engaged in , what is meant by this word and how it is understood. At the same time, the psychological foundations of psychotherapy are far from perfect, they have been developed quite little, and doctors are little inclined to be interested in psychology, especially academic psychology, often even denying the need for its perception. The second strange thing is that all over the world, a clinical psychologist who has undergone training can engage in psychotherapy along with a doctor. appropriate retraining (simultaneously and on an equal basis with doctors). In the Russian Federation, specialty 02200 “Clinical Psychology” was introduced only in 2000; in the regulatory document “Qualification Characteristics of a Clinical Psychologist,” a clinical psychologist is defined as “assisting” a psychotherapist, that is, not having the right to independent practice. In addition, there is little clinical content in the education of a clinical psychologist - the education is not medical and can be taught at any university. What’s even stranger is that recently three new standards of higher professional education have been introduced: “Medical Biochemistry”, “Medical Biophysics” and even “Medical Cybernetics” (a cybernetics doctor - that’s what it sounds like!), but “Medical Psychology” is education still completely unmedical. And the Ministry of Health does not regulate or streamline the activities of psychologists - even clinical ones. The so-called “Psychocorrection” is entrusted to the jurisdiction of the psychologist, and not only the clinical one, a term which is even less defined than “Psychotherapy”, not to mention the lack of boundaries between these concepts. Even the chief psychotherapist of the Russian Federation, B.D. Karvasarsky, in his textbooks “Psychotherapy” and “Medical Psychology” cannot give a fundamental answer about the difference in these two concepts. And this despite the fact that a psychologist is officially forbidden to engage in psychotherapy, and a doctor is forbidden to engage in psychocorrection. Meanwhile, practicing psychologists are no worse, and often even better due to certain characteristics, they are able to help a person - both healthy and sick - both physically and mentally . In my opinion, their subjective “advantages” include high theoretical knowledge of the subject, knowledge of the methodology of working with a healthy psyche, the absence of the paternalism so characteristic of doctors, which sometimes turns into snobbery, and often a higher level of trust among the population, angry at doctors in general and psychiatrists in particular. In addition, the standard of training for any psychotherapist abroad requires hours of supervision (work under the supervision of a more senior psychotherapist) and personal psychotherapy. In the Russian Federation there is no such requirement, and few people follow it on their own initiative. As a result, we have: A psychotherapist who is allowed to engage in “Psychotherapy” (I deliberately put the term in brackets), in the absence of a theoretical basis and a minimum of practical training, and a Clinical psychologist, who is more knowledgeable in psychology, and probably knows something from the clinic, but does not have the right to practice independently. So, doctors do not know what they are doing. Psychologists do not bring the benefit to medicine that they could bring. And a galaxy of healers is growing in full bloom,.