Handbook of Mentalizing in Mental Health Practice

Handbook of Mentalizing in Mental Health Practice by Anthony W Bateman

Mentalization-based therapy is a specific type of psychotherapy designed to help people consider their own thoughts and feelings and differentiate them from the perspectives of others. The editors are the foremost experts on mentalizing, having published two previous books and a multitude of scholarly papers defining it and describing its multiple clinical applications. Handbook of Mentalizing in Mental Health Practice is by far the most cutting-edge, comprehensive source of information and instruction on this critical therapeutic technique, with everything clinicians need to know to integrate mentalizing into their therapeutic repertoire. The editors maintain that the aim of mentalizing therapy is to enhance a mentalizing process, regardless of the context in which it is being delivered. Thus, while most often employed in individual therapy, it can also be useful in group and family therapy situations. Similarly, it may prove equally effective in inpatient and outpatient contexts, and in standard and brief therapy modes. What is critical is the therapist's focus on the patient's "mind-mindedness" as it applies to his or her subjective experience of reality and to awareness of other people's perspectives. Here are some of the key observations made in this fascinating book: • Evidence suggests that people who have been diagnosed with a personality disorder may have specific deficits in mentalizing in the context of attachment relationships, and that this group transcends the classification of borderline personality disorder (BPD), which the authors had previously identified with such deficits. This has profound implications for treatment of all types of personality disorders.• The authors now see mentalizing as a developmental construct that is extended to the family and throughout an individual's development. This insight suggests that intervention—and even prevention of deficits—may be possible.• Because mentalizing is a fundamental psychological process, it interfaces with all major mental disorders. This means that mentalizing techniques may have the potential to improve well-being across a range of disorders, including depression, eating disorders, addiction, and even the less severe forms of antisocial personality disorder.• Adolescence, the phase of development where personality disorder, depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, and other disorders first emerge, is a critical period for identification of mentalizing deficits and the time when intervention can do enormous good. These insights are tremendously useful for any practitioner of psychotherapy, as well as students in the field. Exhaustive in its coverage of the nature, practice, and exciting potential of this relatively new approach, Handbook of Mentalizing in Mental Health Practice is destined to become a classic in the literature of psychotherapy.

Though I was familiar with the concept, this book expanded my knowledge and understanding of how and where mentalizing could be usedThe writing is clear and not overly technical or verbose, and the instructions for the application of mentalizing are direct and practical. I would highly recommend this book for clinicians interested in learning about and/or using mentalizing in their practice. -- Brett C. Plyler, M.D. * Doody Enterprises *
Clear descriptions, with vivid vignettes, of the various ways mentalisation can break down proved useful throughout.... Sections on thinking how mentalisation-based therapy could be applied to units, wards, hospitals, prisons and even society at large were thought provoking in the best way possible and could lead clinicians to trying it in their own environs. -- Jon Patrick * British Journal of Psychiatry *
The wide-ranging nature of the chapters by the 27 different contributing authors means that there is something here that will attract most mental health clinicians....The handbook provides detailed explanations and examples of the therapeutic approach, along with a range of practical aids to the clinician wishing to work in this manner. It is, in this way, a deeply practical as well as theoretical handbook.I strongly recommend it to any clinician working in the field of mental health or researcher interested in our capacity to hold other minds in mind. -- Padraig Collins, PsycCRITIQUES
Anthony W. Bateman's and Peter Fonagy's Handbook of Mentalizing in Mental Health Practice offers a comprehensive guide to mentalization and its various applications in clinical settings and therapy treatments. This is a great manual for both therapists who are trying to evolve methods of treatment, and patients who are trying to understand a related situation better. -- Malorie Mella * Somatic Psychotherapy Today: The USABP Magazine *
This extremely valuable volume illuminates the capacity to mentalize as a previously sensed, but not articulated, essential component of healthy growth and development. Mentalization is an issue for patients across all diagnostic categories, and should be assessed, tracked, and enhanced in psychotherapeutic treatments of all theoretical orientations. -- Susan G. Lazar, M.D. * Journal of Psychiatric Practice January 2013 *

Anthony W. Bateman, M.A., F.R.C.Psych., is Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy, Halliwick Unit, St. Ann's Hospital, Barnet, Enfield, and Haringey Mental Health Trust; Visiting Professor, University College London. Peter Fonagy, Ph.D., F.B.A., is Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis and Director of the Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology at University College London; Chief Executive of the Anna Freud Centre, London; and Consultant to the Child and Family Program at the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Baylor College of Medicine.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781585623723
ISBN 10	1585623725
Title	Handbook of Mentalizing in Mental Health Practice
Author	Anthony W Bateman
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	American Psychiatric Association Publishing
Year published	2011-07-30
Number of pages	617
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable