Informed consent--or the physician's anxiety delegated to the patient

Medical information, the precondition of informed consent, the author argues, is passed on to the patient not only on the concrete cognitive level; deeper unconscious and emotional levels pertaining to transferential and countertransferential aspects of the patient-physician relationship may have an important impact on the healing process. Two short examples illustrate how the physician's own anxieties may interfere with his informing of the patient. The article concludes with a plea for including psychotherapeutic teaching in medical training.