mirror transference

in self psychology, a narcissistic transference technique in which patients’ grandiose selves are reactivated as a replica of the early phase of their lives when their mothers established or undermined their sense of perfection by admiring or devaluing their exhibitionistic behavior. This “reactivation process” aims to help the patient develop healthy self-esteem. Compare idealizing transference; twinship transference. [first described by Austrian-born U.S. psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut (1913–1981)]

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Psychology term of the day

December 23rd 2024

total immersion

a program for second-language acquisition in which all instruction is in the new language and there is minimal use of the individual’s native language. In school-based immersion programs, the second language is incorporated into the teaching of other subjects, with the goal of creating a bilingual classroom. Early immersion refers to programs begun when children are in kindergarten or grade 1 and continued through the rest of elementary school.