Adversity, attachment, and mentalizing

Peter Fonagy, Anthony W. Bateman
2016 Comprehensive Psychiatry  
The papers in this special issue offer evidence of personality disorder as a dysfunction of higher-order cognition, which is conceptualized variously as a disorder of mentalizing, metacognition, mindfulness, social cognition and reflective function. While there may be differences in the scope of these concepts, they all imply that higher-order mental processing is at the core of personality function. In this commentary, the authors use mentalizing as an umbrella term for these concepts, and
more » ... e that it is the complex interaction of adversity, attachment and mentalizing that lead to the characteristic symptoms of borderline personality disorder and other personality disorders. Evidence is provided from the papers in this special issue, comments made on the findings and further avenues for research are recommended.
doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2015.11.006 pmid:26654293 fatcat:3ik4zl7krbh7peuruu5mtfepmm