The development of guidelines for clinical practice as well as the objections against it are discussed. The problems facing the implementation of guidelines are in part of a methodological nature; in part they reflect adverse developments in society. Psychiatrists should work on guidelines and protocols to reinforce their position in negotiating with insurance companies `buying care'. However, simply imposing guide- lines and protocols upon health care workers will turn out to be counterproductive and may even arrest the process of developing and testing. This would make guide- lines and protocols into mere restrictions, having a negative influence on psychiatry's professional standards.