[The patient's privacy and the treatment of intimacy: an ethical reflection]

Although no one today doubts that speaking of a nurse's patient care presupposes the nurse will carry out her/his role as a professional; nonetheless, this has been related to the patient's intimacy very few times. This article concerns this last perspective since the author maintains as her hypothesis that the sharing of myths and images people hold, as an essential element of each person, requires nurse's care. For this reason, the author presents the concept of the intimacy of the patient from an ethical point of view and defines the principles which compose the treatment of intimacy.