Donna has borderline personality disorder. She is in therapy, but progress is slow. One problem is that some days she thinks her therapist is the most wonderful person in the world. On other days, she thinks he is worthless and untrustworthy. This type of thinking is called ________

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Splitting is a term used in borderline personality disorder to describe the tendency to see people and situations as all good or all bad, without any middle ground. This could explain why Donna sometimes thinks her therapist is wonderful and other times thinks he is worthless. Dialectical thinking (A) is a therapeutic approach used to address this type of black-and-white thinking. Entitlement (C) is not relevant to the scenario and psychopathological (D) is a broad term that does not specifically apply to Donna's thinking patterns.

Donna Has Borderline Personality Disorder