title: The nurse, the patient, and the illness: an object relations approach to nursing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  An object relations approach to the patient's experience of illness.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore possible unconscious meanings of illness to patients, and antecedents to the meanings.
  
  
  METHODS
  The author's clinical experience.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nurses can work more effectively with patients when they have an understanding of early object relations theory, the defenses of projective identification and splitting, and their own countertransference reactions to patients and their illnesses.
authors.affiliation: Fachbereich Pflege und Gesundheit, Fachhochschule Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Teising
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001828:Body Image; D003379:Countertransference; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D011385:Projection; D012803:Sick Role