Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of Self [Hardcover]

Peter Fonagy (Author), Gyorgy Gergely (Author), Elliot L. Jurist (Author), Mary Target (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 2000

Winner of the 2003 Gradiva Award and the 2003 Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic Scholarship

Arguing for the importance of attachment and emotionality in the developing human consciousness, four prominent analysts explore and refine the concepts of mentalization and affect regulation. Their bold, energetic, and encouraging vision for psychoanalytic treatment combines elements of developmental psychology, attachment theory, and psychoanalytic technique. Drawing extensively on case studies and recent analytic literature to illustrate their ideas, Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist, and Target offer models of psychotherapy practice that can enable the gradual development of mentalization and affect regulation even in patients with long histories of violence or neglect.

Provides an exhaustive review of psychoanalytic and developmental psychological research. Employs a truly impressive array of detailed and engaging case studies. Puts forth a comprehensive theory for the way in which the abilities to mentalize (make and use mental representations of your own and other people's emotional states) and affect regulate (control one's own emotions as is appropriate to environment) can determine a person's successful development. Discusses the ways in which bad or insufficient parenting can leave children unable to modulate and interpret their own feelings, as well as the feelings of those around them. Considers the implications for personality disorders and general psychological problems of self-confidence, etc. Evaluates the role of psychoanalytic therapy in addressing this problem in patients, by teaching them in later life to develop these cognitive/emotional capabilities.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Stunning in its scope, powerfully reasoned, clinically rich in telling cases, and historically sophisticated. What an intellectual delight to have a book that stays in your mind, continues to challenge, and offers new directions for understanding."
-Ed Tronick, Chief of the Child Development Unit, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

"This is a book worth savoring, not just reading."
-Drew Westen, Director, Adolescent and Adult Personality Programs, Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University

"This book is already a classic."
-Paul Verhaeghe, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychoanalysis, University of Ghent, Belgium

"An intellectual and clinical tour de force. This book will have a profound impact on both clinical practice and clinical research."
-Sidney J. Blatt, Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, Yale University

About the Author

Peter Fonagy, Ph.D., F.B.A., is Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis and Director of the Sub-Department of Clinical Health Psychology at Univesity College London.

Gyorgy Gergely, Ph.D., is Director of the Developmental Psychology Laboratory of the Psychology Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Mary Target, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in Psychoanalysis at University College London.

Elliot L. Jurist, Ph.D., is Director of the PhD Program in Cinical Psychology, CUNY, and Lecturer, Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Other Press; 1 edition (December 17, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892746344
• ISBN-13: 978-1892746344
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 1.7 x 6.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,488,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars changing the way we think of infant-parent interactions, September 25, 2003

By 

Cristina Ackerman, MSW (Fairbanks, AK United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of Self (Hardcover)

This book and this theory provide a comprehensive framework for understanding both infant/human development AND infant-parent relationships. More importantly, the book suggests what exactly it is that clinicians are or strive to be doing as they implement infant-parent psychotherapy and other infant mental health interventions with high risk families. This book brought together years of my own self-study in IMH, helping me develop an integrated framework for my work with families of young children. Actually, this framework impacts the work I do with people of all ages. It helps me define what clinical practice is.

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, December 5, 2004

By 

Charlie Sandover "Sandover" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of Self (Hardcover)

Mainstream psychoanalytic writing does not get any clearer, more useful, or more compassionate than this sober, rigorous examination of attachment theory and theory of mind in light of well-known psychoanalytic ideas. A masterpiece.

62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A major new approach to diagnosis & theory, April 10, 2003

By 

Dr. Mark V. Mellinger (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of Self (Hardcover)

Fonagy, et al present a thorough and careful reconsideration of the nature and etiology of psychological symptoms and syndromes. They integrate the latest relational concepts of psychoanalytic thinking with the latest concepts of neuropsychology. The result is both radically new and consistent with the best of the foundations of psychoanalyis (Pierre Janet's 19th century understanding of the role of trauma; Freud's pre-recantation focus on trauma).

The writing varies from chapter to chapter, apparently with different authors (not identified by chapter). It is consistently relevant and worthwhile, but some chapters are clearly written and easy to follow, while others are a bit turgid and require dedicated attention.