The authors analyze the possible need for a standing national group to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the psychotherapies. The current need is for a body whose function is more scientifically evaluative and less regulatory than the Food and Drug Administration because available psychotherapies are less specific in their beneficial effects and less dangerous than are drugs and because the practice of psychotherapy cannot be restricted entirely to the health professions. Even so, the authors believe the main criteria for discerning the boundaries between research and established practice are in principle at least as clear for psychotherapy as for other health interventions.