Abstract: Background. Mentalization has recently been identified as a major process in the origins, maintenance, and recovery from various mental disorders. Aims. Questions arise however, as to the degree to which deficits in mentalization can be trait or state-like: whether they manifest themselves across all types of human interaction, or are they relationship dependent, such that different types of relationship (e.g., affiliative vs. competitive) can facilitate or compromise mentalizing? Findings. This paper suggests that mentalization has a complex evolutionary history, has various subtypes and functions, is highly regulated by the experience of threat or safeness within relationships, and can operate differently in different types of social relationship. Implications. Awareness of this enables therapists to pay particular attention to the social roles and types of relationships in which mentalization occurs, its specific focus and functions for specific types of relationships. Therapists can be mindful of the kind of specific events in social roles that activate threat and loss of mentalizing (e.g., abandonment threats, feeling controlled by ‘the other’, status loss, non-reciprocation).

Abstract: Recent studies have suggested that the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) contributes both to understanding the mental states of others and to introspecting about one's own mind. This finding has suggested that perceivers might use their own thoughts and feelings as a starting point for making inferences about others, consistent with "simulation" or "self-projection" views of social cognition. However, perceivers cannot simply assume that others think and feel exactly as they do; social cognition also must include processes that adjust for perceived differences between self and other. Recent cognitive work has suggested that such correction occurs through a process of "anchoring-and-adjustment" by which perceivers serially tune their inferences from an initial starting point based on their own introspections. Here, we used functional MRI to test two predictions derived from this anchoring-and-adjustment view. Participants (n = 64) used a Likert scale to judge the preferences of another person and to indicate their own preferences on the same items, allowing us to calculate the discrepancy between the participant's answers for self and other. Whole-brain parametric analyses identified a region in the MPFC in which activity was related linearly to this self-other discrepancy when inferring the mental states of others. These findings suggest both that the self serves as an important starting point from which to understand others and that perceivers customize such inferences by serially adjusting away from this anchor.

Abstract: The ability to read the minds of others (i.e., to mentalize) requires that perceivers understand a wide range of different kinds of mental states, including not only others’ beliefs and knowledge but also their feelings, desires, and preferences. Moreover, although such inferences may occasionally rely on observable features of a situation, perceivers more typically mentalize under conditions of “uncertainty,” in which they must generate plausible hypotheses about a target's mental state from ambiguous or otherwise underspecified information. Here, we use functional neuroimaging to dissociate the neural bases of these 2 distinct social–cognitive challenges: 1) mentalizing about different types of mental states (beliefs vs. preferences) and 2) mentalizing under conditions of varying ambiguity. Although these 2 aspects of mentalizing have typically been confounded in earlier research, we observed a double dissociation between the brain regions sensitive to type of mental state and ambiguity. Whereas ventral and dorsal aspects of medial prefrontal cortex responded more during ambiguous than unambiguous inferences regardless of the type of mental state, the right temporoparietal junction was sensitive to the distinction between beliefs and preferences irrespective of certainty. These results underscore the emerging consensus that, rather than comprising a single mental operation, social cognition makes flexible use of different processes as a function of the particular demands of the social context.

Abstract: The general consensus is that disturbed identity is one of the defining characteristics of borderline personality disorder. So far it has not been possible to reach a generally accepted definition of identity, and the clinical phenomenon of identity disturbance involves inner subjective states that are not directly accessible to observation and reliable assessment. In this article a preliminary definition of identity is suggested and different levels, dimensions, and categories of identity are delineated. Essential elements of identity disturbance or identity diffusion in BPD patients are described and related to other aspects of borderline personality disorder: mentalization failures, disrupted relationships, impulsive or nonvolitional behavior, deficits in memory, dissociation, and dysfunctional self-narratives.

Abstract: John Nemiah was interested in the impact of emotionally traumatic events on mental and bodily processes and in conceptualizing the psychological defenses and deficits that contribute to the development of psychological and somatic symptoms. He viewed dissociation as the central psychological mechanism in the formation of a spectrum of symptoms, and conceptualized alexithymia as a deficit in the cognitive processing of emotion such that stress-induced arousal could bypass the psyche and produce somatic symptoms. This article briefly reviews some of Nemiah's conceptual ideas and relates them to several new theories and concepts and findings from empirical research. His concept of the 'psychic elaboration' of emotion is consistent with contemporary theories of the cognitive processing of emotions that emphasize the importance of imagery and linguistic symbolizations. Alexithymia is inversely related to mentalization and is associated with insecure attachment styles and emotional trauma, which influence the capacity to regulate affects induced by stressful events. A multiple code theory of emotional information processing links psychological and somatic symptoms to various degrees of dissociation within and between the elements comprising emotion schemas and to compensatory attempts at repair. Recent studies support Nemiah's view that alexithymia and intrapsychic conflicts may both contribute to the pathogenesis of panic attacks. There is also substantial evidence of an association between childhood trauma and the development of somatic disease in adult life. Secure attachments and well-developed capacities for symbolization and affect regulation seem to render individuals more resilient to the traumas and stressful events of everyday life.

Abstract: Mentalization is the process by which we implicitly and explicitly interpret the actions of ourselves and others as meaningful based on intentional mental states (e.g., desires, needs, feelings, beliefs, and reasons). This process is disrupted in individuals with comorbid antisocial (ASPD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD), who tend to misinterpret others' motives. Antisocial characteristics stabilize mentalizing by rigidifying relationships within prementalistic ways of functioning. However, loss of flexibility makes the person vulnerable to sudden collapse when the schematic representation is challenged. This exposes feelings of humiliation, which can only be avoided by violence and control of the other person. The common path to violence is via a momentary inhibition of the capacity for mentalization. In this article, the authors outline their current understanding of mentalizing and its relation to antisocial characteristics and violence. This is illustrated by a clinical account of mentalization-based treatment adapted for antisocial personality disorder. Treatment combines group and individual therapy. The focus is on helping patients maintain mentalizing about their own mental states when their personal integrity is challenged. A patient with ASPD does not have mental pain associated with another's state of mind; thus, to generate conflict in ASPD by thinking about the victim will typically be ineffective in inducing behavior change.

Abstract: The sense of agency, i.e., the sense that "I am the one who is causing an action", and mentalizing, the ability to understand the mental states of other individuals, are key domains of social cognition. It has been hypothesized that an intact sense of agency is an important precondition for higher-level mentalizing abilities. A substantial body of evidence shows that both processes rely on similar brain areas and are severely impaired in schizophrenia, suggesting a close link between agency and mentalizing. Yet this relationship has not been explicitly tested. We investigated 40 individuals with schizophrenia and 40 healthy controls on an agency and mentalizing task. On the agency task, participants carried out simple mouse movements and judged the partially manipulated visual feedback as either self- or other-generated. On the mentalizing task, participants inferred mental states from pictures that depicted others' eyes ("Reading the mind in the eyes test"). Neuropsychological, psychopathological and social functioning levels were also evaluated. Both sense of agency and mentalizing were impaired in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls. However, testing for a relationship revealed no significant correlations between the two processes, either in the schizophrenia or the control group. The present findings demonstrate a dissociation of agency and mentalizing deficits in schizophrenia, suggesting that the multifaceted construct of social cognition consists of independent subdomains in healthy and psychiatrically ill individuals.

Abstract: This study explored processes of mentalization as they unfold during a sculpting task administered to mothers of two- to four-year olds. Twenty-four first-time mothers to children aged two to four (thirteen mothers to boys and eleven mothers to girls) sculpted themselves with their child in clay and then were interviewed while observing the sculptures. The task fostered parental mentalization ( Fonagy, Steele, Moran, Steele, & Higgitt, 1991 ) in most of the participants, with the mothers gaining insight regarding their mental states as mothers. Four characteristics of the specific task – visual reflectiveness, wondering, transformation, and implicit memories – were identified as enabling, enhancing, and even triggering parental mentalization by means of a relatively short task. The study discusses the possible elements that fostered parental mentalization during the task and highlights its potential as a therapeutic tool in art therapy and psychotherapy interventions.

Abstract: This study examined the mentalization capabilities of children exposed to parental methamphetamine abuse in relation to symptom underreporting, mental health, and behavioral outcomes. Twenty-six school-aged children in foster care participated in this study. Mentalization was assessed using the My Family Stories Interview (MFSI), a semi-structured interview in which children recalled family stories about a happy, sad or scary and fun time. An established scale of the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC), a self-report measure, provided information on children's symptom underreporting. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), completed by the children's foster caregivers, assessed children's mental health and behavioral outcomes. Children with higher mentalization were significantly less prone to underreport symptoms. These children had fewer mental health problems and were rated by their foster caregivers as more socially competent. The findings underscore that mentalization could be an important protective factor for children who have experienced parental substance abuse.

Abstract: Objectives To explore the meanings of self-injury and overdosing, and the relationship of each to the other, for women who have fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder. Design Four women with a history of both self-injury and overdosing were recruited through a local psychotherapy service and interviewed following a semi-structured framework. Methods The interview transcripts were systematically analysed utilizing interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results The analysis lead to the construction of three interrelated themes: (a) The context of distress. Examples were inclusive of temporally distal factors such as childhood abuse and loss, and proximal factors ranging from the interpersonal (e.g. conflict) through to the intra-personal (e.g. negative thoughts relating to self). (b) The progressive management of distress. An overdose was depicted as a last resort once self-injury had become insufficient a means of self-help to manage feelings of desperation and isolation. (c) Ambivalence in relation to death. The clearly stated intention of an overdose was 'to die'. However, both words and (descriptions of) deeds suggested considerable ambivalence in relation to this - overdoses appearing to depict an attempt to resolve unbearable feelings through an unarticulated 'cry for help' rather than suicide completion. Conclusions The overall impression gained was of a group of women in a world of problematic relations (to both self and others) struggling to know how best to attract support and understanding. In discussion, links are made to the literature on reflectivity/reflexivity through Fonagy's notion of 'mentalization'. Language: en

Abstract: I. Theory Development Regarding Adult Attachment.-The Origins of an Attachment Approach to Social Work Practice with Adults.-Contemporary Theory and Research on Adult Attachment: Where is the Field Today.-Clinical Social Work and Regulation Theory: Implications of Neurobiological Models of Attachment.-II. Applications to Adult Clinical Practice.-Separation, Loss, and Grief in Adults: An Attachment Perspective.-Listening Closely: The Significance of the Therapist's Voice Intensity, Rhythm, and Tone.-Using a Mentalization-Based Framework to Assist Hard-to-Reach Clients in Individual Treatment.-Attachment and Caregiving for Elders within African American Families.-Attachment in the Family Context: Insights from Development and Clinical Work.-Applications of Attachment Theory to Group Interventions: A Secure Base in Adulthood.-III. Attachment Applications to Policy, Research, and Education.-Policy Implications of Attachment Processes in Adulthood: Caregiving and Family Preservation.-Contributions of Social Workers to Attachment Research.-Implications of Attachment Theory for Social Work Education

Abstract: In an attempt to illustrate the relevance of psychoanalytic theory and research to behavior medicine, an empirical investigation was conducted of females treated at a high-risk pregnancy specialty clinic (N = 58). Drawing from psychoanalytic object relations theory, it was hypothesized and confirmed that use of projection as a defense mechanism during pregnancy, superimposed on simplistic object relations, predicted an erosion of patient-provider relationships during the pregnancy/postdelivery period. Findings are interpreted through the perspective of mentalization, pertaining to individuals' ability to understand the mental states of self and others, specifically under significant stress. Implications for psychoanalytically oriented assessment and treatment, and for the rift between psychoanalysis and research, are discussed.

Abstract: Fonagy and colleagues have conceptualized a decoupling effect of the activated attachment system on the capacity to mentalize (Fonagy and Target 2008). Neuroimaging studies provide evidence for this mechanism but drew on study designs that did not specifically operationalize the relationship between attachment activation and broader social cognition (Bartels and Zeki 2004). Bowlby’s original notion of internal working models of attachment that come on line when a person is exposed to attachmentrelated stress (e.g., death, loss, other relational trauma) has as yet not been subjected to rigorous neuroscientific investigation. Behaviorally, however, it is known that secondary strategies come into play when direct security seeking, due to an inaccessibility of the attachment figure or its psychic representation, fails. The brain mechanisms of these processes of hyperactivation (perceptual vigilance) and deactivation (perceptual defense), as attempts to adapt to a suboptimal environment, have not yet been explored (Mikulincer and Shaver 2007).

Abstract: This paper explores a particular kind of defensive structure – automata states – and examines elements of this mechanism as it may emerge in the therapeutic relationship. The ideas presented may be of particular interest to therapists treating so-called borderline patients, including patients who at times deploy high levels of aggression and violence, towards the self and others. Consideration is given to the re-firing of communicative projective processes, which may have been employed during infancy and childhood, and that may have been dormant for a lengthy period. Such projective dynamics are linked to grossly disorganized attachment patterns during infancy where, it would appear, there has been a critical lack of reflective function and mentalization on behalf of the primary caregivers. The author argues that, with certain individuals, it may be possible to approach new ways of exploring and expressing such underlying psychodynamics in the therapeutic relationship. Clinical case material is included, ...

Abstract: Human beings show an innate predisposition to develop attachment relations with primary parental figures that perform a protection function against danger. In couple and family life, this necessity is particularly evident in the perinatal period, during the adolescence and the emancipation of the offspring and in every stressful and potentially dangerous period. In these situations the family attachment system will be activated and a fundamental aspect of parenting will be to offer a secure base to the offspring, i.e. an atmosphere of safety and trust in the relationship with the attachment figure. Another parental function very important for protection from traumatic experiences is to foster mentalization. This function, a consequence of the quality of attachment, is fundamental for the development and the organization of the Self and enables regulation and control of affects and their somatic correlates, mainly in stressful circumstances. Empirical research has evidenced how in the perinatal period the mother's and father's emotional states are significantly linked. Moreover, in this period, fathers themselves may also suffer from affective disorders similar to post-partum depression. An important male function, in the perinatal period, seems to be provision of a secure base for his companion, helping her to overcome the difficulties, keeping suffering at endurance levels and fostering the conditions by which the special relation between the mother and the baby can develop in an adequate way. In fact, preoccupied, too anxious or depressed fathers, or those with behavioural problems (pathological aggressiveness, alcoholism, addiction disorders), can be a handicap for the emotional equilibrium of their companion and for the good development of the relationship between mother and child. Some research data confirming this hypothesis are described.

Abstract: This essay takes up the issue of anal sexuality among gay men in order to consider the relationship between bodily and psychic penetrability. The lack of recognition some gay men may experience with this aspect of their sexuality suggests the importance that feeling “mentalized” (e.g., Fonagy and Target, 1993) may play in adult life. Drawing on early gay liberation and ACT UP-era theorizing about anal sex and an extended clinical example, I explore the meanings of gay men's wishes to (and fears of) penetrate and be penetrated on both bodily and psychic levels as well as the consequences of feeling denied entry. My consideration of these matters becomes in turn an occasion for a critical assessment of the mentalization concept itself.

Abstract: The present thesis investigated several components important to the understanding of mentalization for children who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The result of the thesis de ...

Abstract: Commentaries on the case study of Olav (Stalsett, Engedal & Austad, 2010) by Richards (2010), Jones (2010), and Malitzky (2010) identify and discuss a number of key issues associated with the case study, including the study's scientific value, the importance of religious experience in relation to psychopathology and psychotherapy, and the roles of self-psychology, attachment, and mentalization in the therapy change process. In our response to the commentaries, we address these issues. We conclude that all of the perspectives reviewed help to explain the factors that contributed to Olav's success in our VITA treatment program. This multi-perspectival approach was supported by one of the core principles of VITA: the creation of a "culture of inquiry," which specifically helped Olav to experience and regulate his intense negative affects and to understand and integrate his dialectically opposed visions of God and spirituality from a variety of points of view and within a diversity of therapeutic activities.

Abstract: The concept of 'mentalization' has recently provided a fertile resource for thinking about various issues in psychoanalysis, including attachment, children's play, personality disorders and the work of interpretation within the analytic setting. Mentalization also provides fruitful ways of thinking about how we read. This paper will suggest that book reading is akin to mind reading: engaging with certain literary texts is akin to understanding the minds of others from the subjective perspective required by mentalization. This way of thinking about literature provides a useful way of understanding its value. The paper will focus specifically on the uses of irony and free indirect speech in Jane Austen's novel Persuasion. Austen's use of literary techniques provides a way of understanding the inner lives of her characters via the ironic voice of the implied author, and requires the reader to engage in the kinds of understanding and insight required for mentalization.

Abstract: Discoveries are sometimes made through the establishment of connections between ideas or theories that appear unrelated. There is currently a booming field of study investigating Theory of Mind and its relationship to mental illness. The study of humour has the potential to provide meaningful insights into this relationship. Not only could humour assist in connecting Theory of Mind and mental illness, but it could assist mental health professionals in connecting with those whom they are treating. Theory of mind is generally described as the ability to attribute feelings and thoughts to oneself and make inferences with respect to the same in others. The term, first coined by Premack and Woodruff (1), is also referred to as ‘mentalizing’. Over the years, interesting hypotheses have been developed that attempt to explain the symptoms of schizophrenia as an impairment of Theory of Mind, in particular, to adequately internalise the thoughts of others. For instance, delusions of persecution and reference can be conceptualised as a misinterpretation of another person’s behaviour or intentions. Furthermore, thought disorder can be regarded as a failure of partitioning assignment of ideas and thoughts. Similarly, negative symptoms of schizophrenia have also been investigated through the lens of a loss of the ability to make appropriate social inferences. But where is the humour amongst such hypotheses? The first clue is a hint. Indeed, a study conducted involving patients with schizophrenia and a hinting task highlighted the deficits in social inferences in this population (2). Those with schizophrenia found hints difficult to understand and often required many clues, compared with a control group. A husband stating to his wife that the shirt he wants to wear to work is creased may not result in the wife ironing the shirt. There may be nothing to read between the lines other than perhaps the implied gender stereotype that is slowly dissolving. From hints, one can increase complexity to jokes and specifically “Theory of Mind Jokes”. In the latter, understanding humour requires the attribution of ignorance, false belief or deception to one of the characters in the joke, in other words an analysis of

Abstract: Summary The third generation of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ap- proaches moves closer to psychodynamic therapies because among others of its extensive emotional and relational work. And it is not felt as strange or as distant by its representatives any more. Communication between the two ways of therapy therefore calls for surveying central paradigms of each the- rapy approach concerning the meaning for its own way of therapy. In this article the development and therapy concept of mentalization from Peter Fonagy will be described and it will be studied to which extent it is an implicit inherent part of the affective cognitive theory of development from Strategic Behavioral Therapy (SBT). The rationale of SBT reveals to a broad extent an overlapping, which amounts not only to the concept of meta-cognition.

Abstract: In today’s psychodynamic psychotherapies, attachment and mentalization are regarded as the two central concepts for understanding human development, its disorders, the psychopathologies developing from these disorders and, as a result of this, also for the very essence of psychotherapy. The significance of attachment for the cognitive-behavioral therapies of the third generation has been described and discussed (HAUKE, 2010). An attempt is made here to explain the concept of mentalization, which is primarily in its core not psychodynamic, but development-psychological, as a central construct and paradigm of present-day cognitivebehavioral therapy approaches using strategic-behavioral therapy as an example. To achieve this, it is necessary to observe the emotional and cognitive development in the first years of life and to analyze them then – with Peter Fonagy – in the light of the developing mentalization. Having discussed the underlying attachment theme, we will go into detail on Fonagy’s mentalization theory. Emotional attachment to the primary caregiver as an innate need of the human (BOWLBY, 1976) and all mammals is regarded as the essential condition for the successful development of the baby. SROUFE (1996) postulates that the aim of the attachment system is the creation of a perception of safety so that it also serves to regulate emotions. These experiences with the caregivers are represented mentally and create expectations with regard to the effects and consequences of its own attachment behavior in a baby. These expectations, combined with its own behavior, form the internal working model (BOWLBY, 1976) within the framework of this homeostatic system of orientation of the baby. A distinction can be made between four different working models which are identifiable as attachment patterns in the behavior: Secure attachment: The child explores the playroom in the presence of the mother. He is insecure and reserved towards strangers. If the mother leaves the room, he cries and immediately seeks to be near her when she comes back. Insecure-avoiding attachment: When the mother leaves the room, the child is less distressed and when she comes back he does not immediately seek to be close to her. In these children the emotional stimulation is down-regulated so that their response to the separation appears weak, there is only a low degree of alarm. Insecure-ambivalent attachment: The child explores and plays only a little in the presence of the mother. If the mother leaves the rooms, the child becomes completely distraught and can only be calmed down again with great difficulty even after she returns. In this child the emotional stimulation is up-regulated, a high degree of alarm is generated which has an effect on the mother. Disorganized attachment: The child behaves with no apparent purpose, wants to end the situation despite the presence of the mother. The mother is both a source of calm and of anxiety and frustration, which is why her presence triggers an undifferentiated and unregulated stimulation in the child. In the families of such children we find long and frequent separations, severe couple conflicts, neglect, abuse. The following have been identified as components of the attachment behavior: a) Signals of the baby which cause the mother to approach (e.g. smiling) b) Aversive signals which also cause the mother to approach (e.g. crying) c) Motoric activity of the baby in that it moves towards the mother d) Relationship establishment with the caregiver as a “target-corrected partnership” as prescribed by the internal working model as of around three years of age Present-day attachment theory assumes four mental representation systems: Expectations regarding interactions with early reference persons Mental representation of events which contain memories of early reference persons and are reactivated Autobiographical memories which link up life history and self-perception Understanding of the mental characteristics and the intentions of other people (feelings, desires, convictions), recognizing these as different from one’s own. 192 psychotherapy european European Psychotherapy/Vol. 9 No. 1. 2010 S. Sulz: Mentalization & metacognition as paradigms for development & therapy in SBT (page 191-208) This last point implies that an intentional position is adopted: One’s own behavior and that of others results from an intention formed on the basis of feelings, desires and convictions. If both are known, the result of an interaction can be predicted. This, however, depends on the ability to “read” the other’s thoughts, i.e. to be able to correctly interpret the mental status of the other person. FONAGY, GERGELY, JURIST AND TARGET (2008) call this ability to interpret behavior psychologically the “interpersonal interpretation mechanism” (IIM). A functional working model requires that this ability is present. They regard this mechanism as a neural mechanism which serves the optimum adaptation of the gene expression to the given social environment. Neurobiological studies suggest that IIM is actually two separate abilities: on the one hand, the recognition of feelings and desires as well as empathy (IIMa (a= affect), which develops at 18 months and is localized in the orbitofrontal cortex and the amygdale; on the other hand, the recognition of beliefs, which becomes possible as of 3 to 4 years and which takes place in the medial prefrontal cortex (BLAIR, MORRIS, FRITH, PERRETT & DOLAN, 1999). Empathy is defined by FONAGY ET AL. (2008, p. 145) as a “mechanism which allows the individual to adopt the perspective of another person and to tap into his inner, emotional state and to a certain extent to feel this himself”. BISCHOF-KOHLER (2010) was able to show that empathy only occurs in children who can recognize themselves in the mirror, i.e. who had formed an ego-consciousness and could thus also make the I-others distinction. TOMASELLO, CARPENTER, CALL, BEHNE AND MOLL (2005) reported that empathy can lead to helpful and cooperative behavior from as early as 14 months. The IIM is acquired over the first twelve months by means of the contingency detection mechanism which works according to the principle of psychofeedback or social biofeedback (GERGELY & WATSON, 1999): The baby perceives the contingent affect-mirroring of the mother. It receives a feedback for its affect. It forms on the basis of this a mental representation of its inner state. It internalizes the empathic expression of the mother and forms a secondary representation of its inner state. It also perceives the reduction of the emotional stimulation. However, in the first three months of its life, a baby is only interested in its own physical self (mirror image with perfect contingency of movements). Only at five months does it start to turn more to the mother (image with imperfect contingency as the mother delays and does not precisely imitate its expression). Children with disorganized attachment maintain, however, their preference for perfect contingency (KOOS, GERGELY, GERVAI & TOTH, 2000). In their attachment attempts with the mother they receive unbearably little contingent affect-mirroring, so that they avoid them. The psychofeedback theory identifies four functions of maternal affect-mirroring (FONAGY ET AL., 2008): 1. The sensitization function – the infant learns to discover groups of inner and outer stimuli on his inner states which indicate to him increasingly distinguishable emotional states. 193 psychotherapy european S. Sulz: Mentalization & metacognition as paradigms for development & therapy in SBT (page 191-208) European Psychotherapy/Vol. 9 No. 1. 2010

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between mentalization and affect regulation, a relationship which has been put forward in the theory of mentalization and has yet to be studied empirically. The subscale Mentalization in NEPSY-II was administered to 26 children between the ages of 9 and 13, who also got to complete a self-report measure concerning their own affect regulation ability. Further information was collected from teacher ratings concerning the children’s affect regulation ability. In addition to the main purpose of investigating the relationship between mentalization and affect regulation, the agreement between child ratings and teacher ratings was also investigated, as well as possible differences between the children’s intrinsic and extrinsic affect regulation. The results showed a non-significant relationship between mentalization and affect regulation, even though there was a minor relationship between the children’s mentalization ability and their affect regulation ability as rated by their teachers. Furthermore there proved to be no agreement between the child ratings and the teacher ratings of the children’s affect regulation ability, and the children rated their extrinsic affect regulation ability as higher than their intrinsic affect regulation ability. Unexpectedly, a significant gender difference was found in the children’s self reported affect regulation ability. The boys rated themselves significantly higher than the girls did. The weak relationship between mentalization and affect regulation should be considered with the small number of participants and the limitations of the measures in mind.