[Neurolinguistic programming in physician-patient communication. Basic principles of the procedure--examples for application in surgery].

Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is a means of improving physician-patient communication that can be learned by any doctor. The present article first describes some of the fundamentals of NLP and then provides examples taken from the field of surgery-in the first instance dealing with the treatment of painful conditions by means of trance or dissociation and, secondly, on the influencing of expectations and the restructuring (reframing) of doctrines in a patient with malignant disease.