Mentalisieren

Mentalizing describes the imaginative ability to attribute meaning to one's own behavior and the behavior of others by assuming motives and mental states as causes for behavior. This ability, learned in early interactions, is closely linked to mental health. Holger Kirsch and Josef Brockmann provide an overview of the theoretical foundations as well as current developments of the mentalization approach, tracing its origins from attachment theory and psychoanalytic object relations theory. They elaborate on the applications of the mentalization concept in psychotherapy and illustrate these with a clear case example. It becomes evident how extensive the application possibilities of this concept are and how significantly psychotherapy, education, and social work can benefit from a mentalization-promoting attitude in matters of health, perception of stress, epistemic trust, and social learning.