  A method is presented for the analysis of the scalar potential in the general
Two-Higgs-Doublet Model. This allows us to give the conditions for the
stability of the potential and for electroweak symmetry breaking in this model
in a very concise way. These results are then applied to two different Higgs
potentials in the literature, namely the MSSM and the Two-Higgs-Doublet
potential proposed by Gunion at al. All known results for these models follow
easily as special cases from the general results. In particular, in the
potential of Gunion et al. we can clarify some interesting aspects of the model
with the help of the proposed method.
