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What Is Mentalizing?

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Adolescent Suicide and Self-Injury

Abstract

Mentalizing, or one’s ability to reflect on mental states in oneself and in others, is a vital skill for existence in a social world. Thus, when the mentalizing goes awry, the consequences can be severe. Mentalization-based treatment (MBT) has been developed to target these mentalizing skills and the consequences of maladaptive mentalizing. Before discussing the specifics of this treatment, it is important to develop a thorough understanding of mentalizing. This chapter aims to provide an overview of mentalizing and its development by examining the following: (1) a brief history of the term mentalization, (2) the four dimensions of mentalizing, (3) the development of typical mentalizing, (4) the importance of parenting and attachment in mentalizing, and (5) the development of atypical mentalizing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Veronica McLaren & Carla Sharp

Authors
  1. Veronica McLaren
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  2. Carla Sharp
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Correspondence to Carla Sharp .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Laurel L. Williams

  2. Brooklyn Minds Psychiatry, Brooklyn, NY, USA

    Owen Muir

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McLaren, V., Sharp, C. (2020). What Is Mentalizing?. In: Williams, L., Muir, O. (eds) Adolescent Suicide and Self-Injury. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42875-4_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42875-4_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-42874-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-42875-4

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