Category: C
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Crisis intervention
A form of brief psychotherapy that emphasizes identification of a specific event precipitating the emotional trauma and uses methods to neutralize and cope with that trauma. Often used in hospital emergency departments. Action taken to help relieve an immediately threatening or serious situation, the short-term aim being to remove a threat to health or welfare,…
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Crisis
A state of sudden psychological disequilibrium; a turning point in a person’s life. A stressful situation characterized by shock and temporary loss of ability to make decisions. A situation or period of difficulty demanding action. A turning point in a disease, after which the person may start to become better or very much worse. An…
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Cri du chat
A type of intellectual disability that is caused by partial deletion of chromosome 5. The name is derived from a catlike cry emitted by children with this disorder. Syndrome of mental retardation. The name is derived from a catlike cry emitted by children with this disorder, which is caused by partial deletion of the fifth…
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Creutzfeldt-jakob disease
A rare, fatal brain disorder that causes a rapid, progressive dementia and associated neuromuscular disturbances. The disease is often referred to as subacute spongiform encephalopathy because it usually produces microscopic cavities in neurons that appear sponge-like. The illness is believed to be caused by prions, proteinaceous infectious particles, which are abnormal forms of a human…
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Cretinism
A type of intellectual disability and bodily malformation caused by severe, uncorrected thyroid deficiency in infancy and early childhood. Underactivity of the thyroid gland (hypothyroidism) in children, resulting in poor growth, severe mental retardation and deafness. A condition caused by thyroid malfunction typically includes feeble mindedness. A disease in children which results from too little…
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Crack
Slang for freebase or alkaloidal cocaine. The name derives from the cracking sound cocaine makes when heated. Also known as “rock” because of its crystallized appearance, alkaloidal cocaine is ingested by inhalation of vapors produced from heating. The drug induces a sense of exhilaration in the user, primarily by blocking the reuptake of the neurotransmitter…
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Countertransference
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…
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Counterphobia
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.
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Counseling
A form of supportive psychotherapy in which a person, adviser, or counselor offers guidance or advice to another based on discussion of the other’s personal problems. Psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social worker, and the clergy commonly use this method. A therapeutic device of conversation and discussion in which one individual offers advice or guidance to another…
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Cotard’s syndrome
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…