mentalization

n. the ability to understand one’s own and others’ mental states, thereby comprehending one’s own and others’ intentions and affects. It has been theorized that this ability is a component of healthy personality development and is achieved through a child’s secure attachment to the parent. The concept has had particular application in the understanding and treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD), characterized in this context as a disorder marked in part by an inability to mentalize due to poor attachment in early life. Mentalization-based treatment (MBT) is a psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy that was developed specifically to address mentalization deficits in patients with BPD; by mitigating these deficits, MBT aims to decrease the problems with impulse control and affect regulation that are common to such patients and to improve their interpersonal functioning. Also called reflective functioning. [proposed in 1996 by Hungarian-born British psychoanalyst Peter Fonagy (1952– )] —mentalize vb.

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Psychology term of the day

February 23rd 2025

perceptual organizational deficit

a phenomenon in which a subset of people with schizophrenia have particular difficulty visually integrating the parts of an object and seeing them as an ensemble. For example, if looking at a watch, they will perceive the hands, the dial, and the numbers as separate forms but will have difficulty processing the watch face as a whole. [coined by U.S. psychologist Steven M. Silverstein (1962– )]