Idealisation
Idealisation is the ascribing of near-omnipotent qualities to another person or organisation, imagining that they possess the power to rescue or completely resolve one's difficulties. It offers comfort in the short term, by placing hope and responsibility somewhere outside oneself, but it sets up an inevitable disappointment once the idealised person or institution turns out to be, as everyone eventually is, only human.
Illustration
On meeting a new therapist for the first time, a man announces to his family that this doctor is unlike any other and will finally 'fix everything that's ever gone wrong,' a conviction that begins to crumble within weeks once ordinary limits of what therapy can achieve become apparent.
Related phenomena
Dependent Personality Disorder
References
- Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Appendix II, 'Defences and Distortions'.