Author: Glossary

The therapist’s emotional reactions to the patient that are based on the therapist’s unconscious needs and conflicts, as distinguished from his or her conscious responses to the patient’s behavior. Countertransference may interfere with the therapist’s ability to understand the patient and may adversely affect the therapeutic technique. However, countertransference also may have positive aspects and…

Deliberately seeking out and exposing oneself to, rather than avoiding, the object or situation that is consciously or unconsciously feared. Engaging in the feared activity.  

A nihilistic delusion in which one believes that one’s body, or parts of it, is disintegrating; that one is bereft of all resources; or that one’s family has been exterminated. Neurologically, cotard’s syndrome is thought to be related to capgras’ syndrome, and both are thought to result from a disconnect between the brain areas that…

Synthesized in the hypothalamus, CRF regulates the secretion of adrenocortropic hormone (ACTH) from the posterior pituitary. CRF has a variety of effects, including activation of the sympathetic nervous system and regulation of behavioral responses to stress.  

A progressive neurological disorder characterized by nerve cell loss and atrophy of multiple areas of the brain, including the cerebral cortex and the basal ganglia. Symptoms are similar to those found in parkinson’s disease, such as poor coordination, akinesia, rigidity, disequilibrium, and limb dystonia. Other symptoms such as cognitive and visual-spatial impairments, apraxia, hesitant and…

A compound structure consisting of the caudate nucleus and the lentiform nucleus, which consists of the putamen and the globus pallidus. A mass of nervous tissue in each cerebral hemisphere. The part of the basal ganglia in the cerebral hemispheres of the brain consisting of the caudate nucleus and the lentiform nucleus. The caudate nucleus…

A structure of the brain in the longitudinal fissure that connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres and facilitates communication between them. It is the largest white matter structure in the brain, consisting of millions of nerve fibers. In refractory epilepsy, symptoms can be reduced by cutting the corpus callosum in an operation known as…

In psychoanalytic therapy, any reference by the patient to earlier failures in interpersonal transactions. The patient typically expresses thoughts and feelings about earlier experiences (and especially about parent and child transactions) in a variety of ways, often indirect and veiled. It is the therapist’s task to grasp the meaning of the patient’s subjective experiences and…

Obscene gesturing seen in patients with tourette’s disorder.