Personality and Mood Disorders Q 82
The client is very hostile toward one of the staff for no apparent reason. The client is manifesting:
A. Splitting
B. Transference
C. Countertransference
D. Resistance
Correct Answer: B. Transference
Transference is a positive or negative feeling associated with a significant person in the client’s past that is unconsciously assigned to another. Transference describes a situation where the feelings, desires, and expectations of one person are redirected and applied to another person. Most commonly, transference refers to a therapeutic setting, where a person in therapy may apply certain feelings or emotions toward the therapist.
Option A: Splitting is a defense mechanism commonly seen in a client with a personality disorder in which the world is perceived as all good or all bad. Splitting is a term used in psychiatry to describe the inability to hold opposing thoughts, feelings, or beliefs. Some might say that a person who splits sees the world in terms of black or white—all or nothing. It’s a distorted way of thinking in which the positive or negative attributes of a person or event are neither weighed nor cohesive.
Option C: Countertransference is a phenomenon where the nurse shifts feelings assigned to someone in her past to the patient. Countertransference, which occurs when a therapist transfers emotions to a person in therapy, is often a reaction to transference, a phenomenon in which the person in treatment redirects feelings for others onto the therapist.
Option D: Resistance is the client’s refusal to submit himself to the care of the nurse. Resistance in psychology refers to any opposition to the therapeutic process. Resistance is a way of pushing back against suggestions, even those that could help you solve mental or emotional health concerns.