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This paper attempts to summarize the evolution of interest in the concept of mentalization which has been researched and enriched by the linking of many disciplines alongside that of psychoanalysis and attachment theory. Taking into account the work of Professors Fonagy and Target and many others, the paper describes factors that enable the development of the capacity to mentalize and those that interfere. It will consider how the quality of attachment affects the transformation of pre-mentalized modes of experience to the recognition of psychic reality of self and other. While mentalizing is part and parcel of all therapies, a mentalization-based therapy was developed in the context of treatment of borderline personality disorder patients by Professors Bateman and Fonagy. The paper will illustrate key concepts in the theory of mentalization with the vignette taken from clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through one clinical example involving complex post-traumatic stress disorder, this paper explores the ways in which the psychoanalytic psychotherapist may need to find creative ways of working which incorporate findings from neuroscience whilst holding the basic frame and methods of the traditional psychoanalytic approach. This entails bringing knowledge of how the body (including the brain) works into the consulting room. In particular, the author describes ways of accompanying the patient during florid flashbacks to chronic and severe childhood abuse and of using grounding techniques afterwards, so that anxiety levels can be sufficiently contained for the necessary therapeutic work to take place. The role of supervision is also explored in terms of how the dynamic of rescuer/victim/persecutor may be played out in the supervisory relationship. Unusually, some of the patient's own reflections, written at the end of the therapy, have been incorporated into the paper. Consideration is given to whether departures from standard psychoanalytic technique constitute boundary violations or useful enactments, which can be seen as a form of creativity which enables the work to move on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the work of Armando Bianco Ferrari whose central tenet is the very direct relationship between the body ( Concrete Original Object) and the mind to which it gives rise, but which is also mind's first and essentially only real object. Ferrari's approach offers an important avenue of approach to the treatment of psychosis, psychosomatic illness and anorexia, for instance, as is recorded in a by now growing Anglophone literature. The direct relationship between body and mind is in contrast to the object relations model in which this relationship is mediated through the breast. The paper starts with a short biological sketch of Ferrari's life before describing his theoretical position. This is largely concerned with the relationship between the mind and its body, the so-called 'vertical axis', and that with the external world which he calls, the 'horizontal axis'. The relationship between body and mind is achieved through the means of a 'contact net' (as opposed to Bion's contact barrier) and the evolution of 'language registers' out of patterns of bodily experience. Ferrari's formulation also involves modifications of the ways he conceives the ego and the oedipal situation (' Oedipal constellation'), especially in the light of what he takes to be an innate femininity and masculinity in either sex, as well as the way in which he frames ideas about health and illness. The fact that the emphasis is directed towards the subject's direct apperception of the sensational and emotional life of his body rather than one mediated exclusively via the object involves a parallel shift away from the transference as always necessarily central to interpretation, without of course dispensing with it or suggesting that it is not ubiquitous. This is one of the various clinical implications of Ferrari's model which is discussed before offering an illustrative clinical vignette, and finally relating Ferrari's thought to some other current theoretical and clinical formulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

abstract This paper examines human altruism and helpfulness and discusses how this can be theorized within psychoanalytic discourses. The importance and 'naturalness' of altruistic tendencies is described, and the effects of adverse experiences such as abuse and neglect on these capacities are examined. The paper integrates psychoanalytic thinking with neuroscience, attachment and developmental research and describes research which suggests that altruism and helpfulness are maybe more 'normally' present from an earlier age than might have been thought. It is argued that there are a range of 'co-emerging' capacities, such as empathy and understanding other minds, that lead to altruism and that in response to abuse and neglect such capacities often do not develop. Clinical example are used which describe patients who had suffered from adverse circumstances and who lacked empathy and altruistic tendencies, and some changes in them are illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the process of couple therapy with two couples that used blame as the currency of exchange in their relationship. Both couples struggled with managing three‐person relationships. The triangular setting of couple psychotherapy provoked and triggered primitive anxieties around exclusion, rejection and abandonment in both cases. I draw upon clinical work with two such couples to illustrate how one repeatedly collapsed the triangular space whereas the other gradually became more able to bear it. I refer to scientific evidence of the brain's ability to continue to change in response to new learning by forming fresh neural connections throughout life. I suggest that the repetitive occurrence of new experiences within couple psychotherapy can generate new neural pathways thereby biologically influencing new ways of how partners might respond to each other. I conclude by highlighting the therapeutic potential of the framework within which couple psychotherapy takes place, a triangular configuration which offers a developmental opportunity for navigating primitive anxieties related to triangular relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I discuss the diminishing role played by psychoanalytic/psychodynamic psychotherapy in public sector mental health treatment services and explore the impact of this on the psychoanalytic profession and its trainees. I draw on the discipline of pragmatics to argue that we need to move from a theory-based approach to clinical practice to a research-based model in which we draw on an integration of evidence from a range of disciplines to build an understanding of the developmental and neuroscientific basis of psychological and emotional problems, with a particular focus on complex PTSD and its overlap with borderline personality disorder. I discuss how process research and outcome studies provide additional tools to add to our understanding of the clinical interaction in the consulting room. I discuss the implications of these findings for clinical practice and the need for clinicians to begin to integrate research into their training and professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]