Psychotherapists in mental health institutions as a professional group are part of the medical system, and from this perspective, as representing an occupation that serves the public health interests, as well as those of the individual seeking help. Despite the different existing therapeutic approaches and diverse forms of therapy deriving from these approaches critical theories, however, consider psychotherapy as a profession with a specific jurisdictional claim and own highly specific interests. In contrast to most of the recent discussion around therapy culture, in this article, I argue that sociology and social theory could benefit from an understanding of psychotherapy as a profession with a separate logic and claim for jurisdiction for mental health. Moreover, I present some general trends showing that, regarding psychotherapy, we face a concurrence of a professionalisation, and simultaneously, an already ongoing deprofessionalisation. To develop my argument, I first discuss the perspectives of sociology of the psychotherapy professions. Second, I present the potential lack of professionalism in four dimensions. Third, I discuss possible tendencies of deprofessionalisation. Finally, I conclude by pointing out the importance of theorising the psychotherapy professions for medical sociology.

作为专业团体的精神卫生机构中的心理治疗师是医疗系统的一部分，从这个角度来看，代表着一种服务于公共卫生利益以及寻求帮助的个人的职业。尽管存在不同的现有治疗方法以及从这些方法中衍生出多种疗法的批判理论，但是，应将心理治疗视为具有特定管辖权主张并拥有高度特定利益的专业。与最近有关治疗文化的大多数讨论形成对比，在本文中，我认为社会学和社会理论可以受益于对心理治疗的理解，因为心理治疗是一种具有独立逻辑并声称对精神健康具有管辖权的职业。此外，我介绍了一些总体趋势，这些趋势表明，关于心理治疗，我们面临专业化的同时，同时也已经在进行专业化。为了阐明我的观点，我首先讨论心理疗法专业的社会学观点。其次，我在四个方面提出了可能缺乏专业精神的问题。第三，我讨论了去专业化的可能趋势。最后，我通过指出心理医学专业对医学社会学的重要性进行总结。