A patient says 'My therapist is the only person who has ever truly understood me; all my other doctors were useless.' This phenomenon, occurring in therapy and representing displacement of feelings from a past relationship onto the therapist, is called:

• A Countertransference
• B Idealisation (a form of transference) ✓
• C Working alliance rupture
• D Projective identification of the therapist

Explanation

Transference is the unconscious redirection of feelings and expectations from past significant relationships onto the therapist. This patient's idealisation of the current therapist ('only person who truly understands') and devaluation of all previous doctors is a positive idealising transference — a split pattern consistent with borderline dynamics. Countertransference refers to the therapist's emotional reactions to the patient. A working alliance rupture is a strain in therapeutic collaboration, not an unconscious projection from the past.

Reference: Kaplan & Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry, 11th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.