Depending on their personality, their social, cultural, and religious environ­ ment, and the nature of their illness, patients tend to have a wait­and­see mood when they come into contact with a doctor, and usually an anxious mood in the case of emergencies. The situation is often accompanied not only by heightened expectations, but also by increased psychological as well as vegetative suggestibility. Suggestion and autosuggestion can, depending on the degree of psychovegetative infl­ enceability, activate the self­healing powers through psychological and physiological changes. On the one hand, the author vividly describes how the conscious use of empathy and sug­ gestion in the context of medical prac­ tice can promote a close doctor­ patient­relationship and positively inflence the results of therapy. On the other hand, he illustrates the negative side of the latter, namely as an exag­ gerated form of overestimation or abuse.