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Medicine has from its beginnings been an interpersonal experience. As George Engel [1] reminds us, the physi-cian-patient relationship usually starts with the patient's disclosure of his or her perception of impaired health. This perception may or may not reflect major bodily changes, but it almost always reflects the intrapsychic appraisal of what is perceived as an altered physical or mental state. Becoming a patient means to react on this appraisal by searching the helping relationship with a health service provider, e.g., a physician or psychotherap-ist. And this potentially helping alliance forms the frame-work, in which medicine actually takes place. Much of the progress in medical science achieved over the last decades has shaped the technical details of this relationship and drawn scientific and public attention t