Definition of Terms

affect

the outward expression of the client’s emotional state

mood

refers to client’s pervasive and enduring emotional state

dysphoria / dysphoric

a profound sense of unhappiness, distress, and indifference

agnosia

inability to recognize or name objects despite intact sensory abilities

akathisia

intense need to move about; characterized by restless movement, pacing, inability to remain still, and the client’s report of inner restlesness

anergia

lack of energy

anhedonia

having no pleasure or joy in life; losing any sense of pleasure from activities formerly enjoyed

countertransference

occurs when the therapist displaces onto the client attitudes or feelings from their past; process that can occur when the nurse responds to the client based on personal, unconscious needs and conflicts

transference

occurs when the client displaces onto the therapist attitudes and feelings that the client originally experienced in other relationships; it is common for the client to unconsciously transfer to the nurse feelings they have for significant others

hallucination

false sensory perceptions or perceptual experiences that do not really exist

illusion

misperception of actual environment stimuli

delusion

a fixed, false belief not based in reality

alogia

a lack of any real meaning or substance in what the client says; very common with schiz

catatonia

psychomotor disturbance, either motionless or excessive motor

labile

rapidly changing or fluctuating, such as someone’s mood or emotions

looseness of association

disorganized thinking that jumps from one idea to another with little or no evident relation between thoughts

milieu

a person's social environment.

euthymic

normal or level mood

ideas of reference

client’s inaccurate interpretation that general events are personally directed to them, such as hearing speech on the news and believing the message has personal meaning