Quotes About Mentalization

But the individual may use the capacity for mentalization in self-serving ways, either to control, seduce, or coerce others by anticipating their needs, or to avoid painful realities that do not converge with their distorted self concept. Bateman and Fonagy (2016) termed this process as hyper- or overactive mentalization.

Both groups were characterized by a simplistic, one-dimensional, naïve concept of mental states, or by hyperactive mentalization (e.g., overelaborated and unconvincing interpretation of motivations, feelings, and beliefs of self and others; an RFS score of ?3).

Thought is action in rehearsal.

Mentalization-based milieu therapy is not least a focus on management and the staff. The model provides practical help to support clinicians working with the most distressed patients and families in a way that helps them retain their own humanity, their own capacity to empathize and act sympathetically. We need structures to help the therapists to retain their ability to create a coherent image of the patient's perspective. A main aim is to create a "mind-minded" mind.

The term "reflective function" (RF) refers to the operationalization of the psychological processes underlying the capacity to mentalize—

interpret their own and others' behavior by attributing mental states

Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: Mentalization Based Treatment (with A. Bateman, published 2004 by Oxford University Press),

Mentalization is intrinsically linked to the development of the self, to its gradually elaborated inner organization, and to its participation in human society, a network of human relationships with other beings who share this unique capacity. We have used the term "reflective function" to refer to our operationalization of the mental capacities that generate mentalization (Fonagy, Target, Steele, and Steele 1998).

playing with reality, making the real unreal and vice versa, is the principal avenue for the development of mentalization.

Interpersonal interpretive processes that developmentally antedate mentalization appear to govern the behavior of individuals with BPD, at least within attachment relationships.

Disorganization of attachment may be the indication of exceptionally poor mentalization.

Mentalization—a concept that is familiar in developmental circles—is the process by which we realize that having a mind mediates our experience of the

Mentalization involves both a self-reflective and an interpersonal component. In combination, these provide the child with a capacity to distinguish inner from outer reality, intrapersonal mental and emotional processes from interpersonal communications