When mentalizing fails... why it matters

It is part of The Therapist's Mentalizing Stance to be noticing when mentalizing is failing and to be Terminating non-mentalizing interactions.

It is also part of The Therapist's Mentalizing Stance to be Highlighting and reinforcing Positive Mentalizing! So do also look at descriptions of the Features of Successful Mentalizing

How does it happen?

There are several ways in which good mentalization gets interrupted, but in general they are triggered by stress/anxiety/anger/fear/etc... this leads to:

• The activation of the stress/fight-flight system
• The activation of the Attachment system.

When these ancient ("They go to volume 10!") systems are activated, they overwhelm and suppress Mentalizing ("This brand new thinking-system that we have only just evolved, and which in adolescents won't even be fully developed, can only go to volume 1 or 2!").

Instead, primitive Pre-mentalistic stances, described as features of the 'disorganised mind', take over - ("much as computers that have crashed may offer to "roll back" to using earlier less-sophisticated settings!")

You can read more about the following Pre-mentalistic stances, and how to address them if you spot them (careful Mentalizing of your client's mental state allows you to Adapt your Discourse to fit their prevailing mental state.)

1. Psychic equivalence
2. Pretend mode
3. Teleological thinking

Spotting UNsuccessful Mentalizing

These 'pre-mentalistic' states, in their turn, generate, maintain, reinforce or exacerbate a range of:

• Emotional difficulties
• Behavioural difficulties
• Interpersonal difficulties

Look at the subtopics under this heading listed in the Show references and info for more content related to this.