[The patient rules; the power of transference in the doctor-patient relationship]

The challenge of the doctor-patient relationship for the participants is maintaining their equivalence while respecting the needs of both sides. As the doctor has the expert power ('authority'), the patient reacts in different ways when he or she cannot release the control over the diagnostic situation. Regressive power can be exercised in three forms of transference relationships: the power of dependency, the power of dominance and the power of desorganisation. Doctors should recognize these forms of relationship but not engage in them. This implies that doctors should be educated in meta-communication with the patient and trained to keep up their warm interested neutrality and their ability to communicate from a scientific background.