Handbook of Mentalizing in Mental Health Practice Edited by Anthony Bateman & Peter Fonagy. American Psychiatric Publishing. 2012. US$69.00 (pb). 617pp. ISBN: 9781585623723

Abstract

The authors of most chapters acknowledge this problem and try hard to collaborate with other modalities, including systemic family therapy and cognitive-behavioural therapy to name only two, but I wonder whether I will not be the only psychotherapist who feels this might be diluted too far at times. With the above in mind, I should acknowledge that I practise mentalisation-based therapy in a forensic setting and have found it to be incredibly helpful in working with patients with a diagnosis of personality disorder. Of these, my favourite was thinking of psychic equivalence as being like the state children are in when they believe there really is a tiger under the bed – mirroring the experience of a patient with borderline personality disorder of having thoughts that are felt to be too real.