[A psychoanalytic approach to the ethics of the physician-patient relationship]

A brief review of some ethical issues related to the advancement of science and technology is presented. The principles currently considered priorities for a healthy relation between patient and physician are discussed, including autonomy, intimacy and respect. In addition, due to the linkage between psychoanalysis and medicine, some elements that determine the ethics of psychoanalysis-such as transference-are analyzed in order to consider their vinculations with the physician-patient relationship. Important corollaries emerge, i.e. the physician must not forget that he deals with a person, that illnesses have particular meanings to patients who also have particular needs, questions and wishes of his or her own.