The choice to cooperate or compete with others confronts us on a daily basis, and it is plausible that we use our mentalising skills to aid decision-making in such situations. We investigated the relationship between mentalising and decision-making in the prisoner's dilemma in adults with autism spectrum disorders , who show impaired mentalising, and normal adults. After completion of three versions of the prisoner's dilemma, we conducted a semi-structured interview. This interview attempted to elicit a participant's spontaneous strategy when playing (...) each version of the game, as well as on their conception of the nature and strategy choice of their opponents . Contrary to expectations, the behavioural choices of the adults with and without ASD were quantitatively similar, as were the qualitative responses to questions used in the interview. The consistency of the evidence from both measures suggests that mentalising ability was not involved in selecting the choices made in these prisoner's dilemma tasks. Instead they suggest the hypothesis that a purely logical strategy may have been adopted. The introspections of at least a subgroup of high-functioning individuals with ASD can on the whole be trusted and this use of mixed methods strengthens the validity of the conclusions drawn. (shrink)

ABSTRACTPrior experiments indicated that reading literary fiction improves mentalising performance relative to reading popular fiction, non-fiction, or not reading. However, the experiments had relatively small sample sizes and hence low statistical power. To address this limitation, the present authors conducted four high-powered replication experiments testing the causal impact of reading literary fiction on mentalising. Relative to the original research, the present experiments used the same literary texts in the reading manipulation; the same mentalising task; and the same kind of participant (...) samples. Moreover, one experiment was pre-registered as a direct replication. In none of the experiments did reading literary fiction have any effect on mentalising relative to control conditions. The results replicate earlier findings that familiarity with fiction is positively correlated with mentalising. Taken together, the present findings call into question whether a single session of rea... (shrink)

Cet article s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une recherche doctorale portant sur les représentations de la séparation chez des enfants placés en Protection de l’enfance. Il s’intéresse ici spécifiquement au dessin de la famille de deux enfants d’âge de latence placés en foyer. L’article analyse chaque dessin en profondeur puis tente de dégager les éléments saillants communs aux enfants rencontrés, tout en les mettant en lien avec les mouvements transféro-contretransférentiels à l’œuvre dans ces rencontres-séparations. Ces dessins montrent de grandes difficultés de (...) représentation, les personnes dessinées sont peu différenciées. Cette indistinction pourrait être mise en lien avec le concept de mentalisation qui aurait été mis à mal par les traumatismes vécus par ces enfants. Mais ce trouble de la mentalisation semble aussi fonctionner comme un mécanisme de défense contre les reviviscences traumatiques et des mouvements pulsionnels agressifs. (shrink)

This paper argues, by attention to the category of sub-intentional agency, that many conceptions of the nature of agency are 'over-mentalised', in that they insist that an action proper must be produced by something like an intention or a reason or a desire. Sub-intentional actions provide counterexamples to such conceptions. Instead, it is argued, we should turn to the concept of a two-way power in order to home in on the essential characteristics of actions.

The idea behind this book is that developing a conception of the physical world and a conception of mind is impossible without the exercise of agency, meaning "the power to alter at will one's perceptual inputs". The thesis is derived from a philosophical account of the role of agency in knowledge - the first time this has been attempted in the context of developmental psychology. The book is divided into three parts. In Part One, Russell argues that purely "representational" theories (...) of mind and of mental development have been overvalued, thereby clearing the ground for the book's central thesis. In Part Two, he proposes that, because objective experience depends upon the experience of agency, the development of the "object concept" in human infants is grounded in the development of executive-attentional capacities. In Part Three, an analysis of the links between agency and self-awareness generates an original theory of the nature of certain stage-like transitions in mental functioning and of the relationship between executive and mentalising deficits in autism. The book will be of particular interest to students and researchers in cognitive-developmental psychology, to philosophers of mind, and to anybody with an interest in cognitive science. (shrink)

There is a frequently asked philosophical question about our ability to grasp and to predict the thoughts and feelings of other people, an ability that is these days sometimes given the unfortunate name of ‘mentalising’ or ‘mind-reading’–I say ‘unfortunate’ because it makes appear mysterious what is not mysterious. Some philosophers and psychologists argue that this ability is grounded in possession of some kind of theory or body of knowledge about how minds work. Others argue that it is grounded in our (...) capacity to take on in imagination the perspective of others; sometimes called simulating or centrally imagining another person, we entertain in our minds what the other person is thinking about and feeling: if he is thinking ‘p’ and ‘if p then q’, then we think ‘p’ and ‘if p then q’, and if he is feeling angry with someone, then we imagine feeling angry with that person. We thus recreate as well as we can in our imagination his mental life as it is ‘from the inside’. We can do this in two different ways: I can put myself in the other's shoes, simply imagining what I would do were I in his situation, or I can empathise with him, imagining being him, taking on in imagination his relevant traits and other mental dispositions; I will from now on use the term perspective-shifting to cover both of these imaginative activities. (shrink)

Theory of Mind (ToM, also referred to as mentalising; Fonagy, 1991; Frith & Frith, 2006) was coined by primatologists, Premack and Woodruff (1978) and adapted in developmental psychology to refer t...

Reprenant les principales dimensions psychopathologiques participant à la compréhension des conduites addictives alimentaires, et les articulant avec les mécanismes neurobiologiques générant et entretenant une véritable addiction, nous privilégions une approche psychosomatique qui permette d’éclairer certaines données cliniques, d’affiner nos attitudes thérapeutiques et d’ouvrir notre réflexion à des perspectives de recherche nouvelle. Dans une approche étiopathogénique, transnosographique, intégrant l’impact de l’environnement socioculturel et des dimensions transgénérationnelles, nous avons évoqué, dans le dysfonctionnement des interrelations précoces et ses conséquences sur le développement de (...) l’enfant et le processus d’adolescence, une hypothèse centrale dans les conduites addictives alimentaires : la défaillance du maternel chez les mères des patientes, en particulier dans l’investissement du corps autonome, vivant et érotique de l’enfant. Cette défaillance ne favoriserait pas une bonne intégration du féminin chez le sujet et participerait à l’avènement d’une organisation sadomasochiste qui le fixe à ses objets infantiles. Sur la base de ces modalités de construction identitaire, nous avons abordé la génèse de ces conduites en soulignant successivement le développement, du fait du défaut de contenant maternel (pare-excitant, organisateur et liant des motions pulsionnelles de l’enfant), d’une organisation dépressiveantidépressive (dépressivité), témoin d’une rupture du développement; celui d’une inactivation partielle, et dans certains domaines, des processus de mentalisation défensive du rapproché relationnel vécu comme emprise (alexithymie). L’organisation symptomatique évolue, selon nous, vers une modalité corporelle et comportementale de régulation de l’équilibre du sujet afin de parer à un risque dépressif ou de désorganisation. Ce processus de régulation touche le système plaisir-déplaisir avec la génèse d’un autosadisme et d’un masochisme moral, source d’une jouissance endogène « à défaut ». Ces dimensions ouvrent la voie à un frayage psychosomatique d’autant que les « solutions » névrotiques et perverses sont en échec, et qu’une pathologie organique secondaire à la conduite constitue un point d’appel de substitution d’une invalidité physique à une invalidité psychique. (shrink)

Humans, like other primates, are intensely social creatures. One of the major functions of our brains must be to enable us to be as skilful in social interactions as we are in our interactions with the physical world. Furthermore, any differences between human brains and those of our nearest relatives, the great apes, are likely to be linked to our unique achievements in social interaction and communication rather than our motor or perceptual skills. Unique to humans is the ability to (...) mentalise, that is to perceive and communicate mental states, such as beliefs and desires. A key problem facing science is to uncover the biological mechanisms underlying our ability to read other minds and to show how these mechanisms evolved. To solve this problem we need to do experiments in which people interact with one another rather than behaving in isolation. Such experiments are now being conducted in increasing numbers and many of the leading exponents of such experiments have contributed to this volume. 'The Neuroscience of Social Interactions' will be an important step in uncovering the biological mechanisms underlying social interactions - undoubtedly one of the major programmes for neuroscience in the 21st century. (shrink)

Le présent article s’appuie sur une pratique psychologique dans le cadre de visites médiatisées. Il cible notamment les entretiens cliniques réalisés par le psychologue avec les parents dans l’après-coup des visites médiatisées et a pour objectif de saisir l’enjeu clinique de ces temps d’entretiens. Deux vignettes cliniques permettent d’esquisser les potentialités des rencontres en l’absence des enfants. Il apparaît que ces entretiens favorisent le rétablissement d’une activité de mentalisation et de symbolisation. Enfin, une discussion métapsychologique éclaire les études de (...) cas. (shrink)

Le consentement et le discernement seraient-ils dans l’inceste le gage qu’il n’y a pas de violence? À lire la loi française telle qu’elle est et à entendre la défense de beaucoup de parents incestueux, la soumission du sujet incesté à leur entreprise serait la preuve d’une non-violence. Or, l’inceste est violence quelle que soit la façon dont les actes sexuels qui le réalisent sont commis parce que l’inceste ne se réduit pas à l’illégalisme de l’acte sexuel. Les cas cliniques et (...) judiciaires dans lesquels l’allégation d’inceste consenti a été énoncée montrent que l’inceste n’est en fait jamais consenti pour ce qu’il est concrètement : un acte sexuel entre deux personnes interdites de mariage, mais qu’il est toujours une violence absolue dont la mentalisation ne vient que longtemps après. Ce que les victimes ont pu croire, même après révélation des actes, c’est que leur place d’enfant et la relation à celui qui les agresse passent par la confusion entre désir sexuel et désir de lien, la notion d’inceste étant indicible. (shrink)

Perhaps the greatest evolutionary advantage conferred by spoken language was its ability to communicate mentalistic concepts, rather than just extending the vocabulary of action already served by an imitation function. An appreciation that the mirror-neuron system served a simple mentalising function before gestural communication sets Arbib's theory in a more appropriate social cognitive context.

The aim of this article is to mount a challenge to gesture-first hypotheses about the evolution of language by identifying constraints on the emergence of symbol use. Current debates focus on a range of pre-conditions for the emergence of language, including co-operation and related mentalising capacities, imitation and tool use, episodic memory, and vocal physiology, but little specifically on the ability to learn and understand symbols. It is argued here that such a focus raises new questions about the plausibility of (...) gesture-first hypotheses, and so about the evolution of language in general. After a brief review of the methodology used in the article, it is argued that existing uses of gesture in hominid communities may have prohibited the emergence of symbol use, rather than ‘bootstrapped’ symbolic capacities as is usually assumed, and that the vocal channel offers other advantages in both learning and using language. In this case, the vocal channel offers a more promising platform for the evolution of language than is often assumed. (shrink)

In adolescence, aspects of cognition that are required to deal with complex cooperation situations, such as mentalising and social value orientation, are still in development. In the Trust Game, cooperation may lead to better outcomes for both players, but can also lead to exploitation by the trustee. In the present study, we explore how mindreading, a crucial aspect of mentalising, and social value orientation (whether someone is prosocial or proself) are related to trust. In a group of 217 students (51% (...) girls, Mage = 15.1) social value orientation, mindreading and trust (using the Trust Game) were measured. The result show that social value orientation moderates the relation between mindreading and trust. In the group of prosocials, we find no correlation between mindreading and trust. In the group of proselfs, mindreading is negatively correlated to trust, indicating that proselfs use their mentalising skills to assess that the trustee is likely to exploit them. (shrink)

Riassunto : Gli autori di autoritratti fotografici possono esprimere diversi aspetti della loro personalità. In particolare, i selfie enfatizzano difficoltà nella connessione cervello-corpo, una fantasia di auto creazione e il bisogno di rimuovere qualsiasi mediazione nella creazione di un’immagine personale. Il fine della pubblicazione di un selfie non nasce dal bisogno di una relazione reale, ma deriva dalla necessità di un’auto-conferma narcisistica. Il pensiero che si produce quando una persona scatta e condivide un selfie esclude la mentalizzazione e non è (...) orientato verso il mondo interno individuale, ma si concentra su un pensiero di auto-rispecchiamento della persona che lo posta. I selfie non rivelano solo livelli variabili di narcisismo dell’autore, a seconda delle tipologie di selfie, ma possono essere segni di alcuni tratti di personalità schizoide, dipendente, istrionica, evitante e anche in alcuni casi borderline. Parole chiave : Selfie; Narcisismo; Autorappresentazione; Rapporto corpo/mente; Social network; Comunicazione Selfie: Hidden Thoughts, Self-creation Fantasy, Personality Traits: Self-portrait photographs can express different aspects of the author’s personality. In particular, selfies magnify difficulties with the brain-body connection, self-creation fantasies and a felt need to remove any mediation involved in the creation of a personal image. The impulse to publish selfies does not stem from a need for real relationships, but rather serves narcissistic self-confirmation. When a person takes and shares a selfie, she avoids mentalisation and does not orient towards her internal world, but instead focuses on self-mirroring the posing person. Selfies not only reveal the variable shades of the author’s narcissism, depending on the typology of the selfie, but can also reveal signs of certain schizoid, dependent, histrionic, avoidant, and sometimes even borderline personality traits. Keywords: Selfies; Narcissism; Self-representation; Mind/Body Relationship; Social Network; Communication. (shrink)

À partir d’une situation de couple dans lequel la communication semble bloquée par un trop plein de souffrance, due en partie à des traumatismes dans les liens de filiation de part et d’autre, l’auteure, grâce à un groupe de recherche, expérimente la nécessité d’un nouvel espace pour réguler un transfert massif. Le groupe de recherche prend en quelque sorte le relais de l’appareil psychique du thérapeute et met en scène les émotions et les représentations qui sont à l’œuvre au sein (...) du groupe thérapeutique. Il devient un lieu de dépôt et de mentalisation des émotions qui circulent dans le transfert, et se fait le porte-voix des souffrances traumatiques enfermées dans les incorporats, ces ratés de l’introjection. (shrink)

_Winner of the 2010 Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Scholarship!_ This book builds a key clinical bridge between attachment theory and psychoanalysis, deploying Holmes' unique capacity to weld empirical evidence, psychoanalytic theory and consulting room experience into a coherent and convincing whole. Starting from the theory–practice gap in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, the book demonstrates how attachment theory can help practitioners better understand what they intuitively do in the consulting room, how this benefits clients, and informs evidence-based practice. Divided into two (...) sections, theory and practice, _Exploring in Security_ discusses the concept of mentalising and considers three components of effective therapy – the therapeutic relationship, meaning making and change promotion – from both attachment and psychoanalytic perspectives. The second part of the book applies attachment theory to a number of clinical situations including: working with borderline clients suicide and deliberate self-harm sex and sexuality dreams ending therapy. Throughout the book theoretical discussion is vividly illustrated with clinical material, personal experience and examples from literature and film, making this an accessible yet authoritative text for psychotherapy practitioners at all levels, including psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, mental health nurses and counsellors. (shrink)

Use of the imagination is a key aspect of successful psychotherapeutic treatments. Psychotherapy helps clients get in touch with, awaken, and learn to trust their creative inner life, while therapists use their imaginations to mentalise the suffering other and to trace the unconscious stirrings evoked by the intimacy of the consulting room. Working from this premise, in _The Therapeutic Imagination_ _Jeremy Holmes_ argues unashamedly that literate therapists make better therapists. Drawing on psychoanalytic and literary traditions both classical and contemporary, Part (...) I shows how poetry and novels help foster therapists’ understanding of their own imagination-in-action, anatomised into five phases: attachment, reverie, logos, action and reflection. Part II uses the contrast between secure and insecure narrative styles in attachment theory and relates these to literary storytelling and the transformational aspects of therapy. Part III uses literary accounts to illuminate the psychiatric conditions of narcissism, anxiety, splitting and bereavement. Based on Forster’s motto, ‘Only Connect’, Part IV argues, with the help of poetic examples, that a psychiatry shorn of psychodynamic creativity is impoverished and fails to serve its patients. Clearly and elegantly written, and drawing on the author’s deep knowledge of psychoanalysis and attachment theory and a lifetime of clinical experience, _Holmes _convincingly links the literary and psychoanalytic canon. _The Therapeutic Imagination _is a compelling and insightful work that will strike chords for therapists, counsellors, psychoanalysts, psychiatrists and psychologists. (shrink)

Le deuil a été largement étudié par la psychanalyse. L’aptitude à la séparation mère-bébé l’est également par les spécialistes du développement infantile. Nous souhaitons former des ponts entre ces deux épistémologies pour démontrer que l’aptitude à la séparation permet la prédisposition au deuil. L’aptitude à la séparation résulte de la cessation de l’état fusionnel mère-bébé qui permet l’établissement de l’intersubjectivité puis de la subjectivité. Le rythme des interactions mère-bébé donne accès à la temporalité. Ces étapes sont essentielles pour le travail (...) de la pensée nécessaire au deuil. Le bébé dont la mère est déprimée dès la naissance ne pourra pas développer son aptitude à la séparation dans une perpétuelle attitude de stimulation. L’enfant qui connaît la dépression maternelle aura les plus grandes difficultés à accepter son ambivalence. Nos illustrations thérapeutiques témoignent qu’il est possible maintenant de proposer une prévention de la dépression maternelle en maternité ou en pédiatrie. (shrink)

Neste trabalho abordo a hipótese apresentada por Fernando Gil no Tratado da Evidência, da hegemonia de mecanismos alucinatórios nos processos evidenciários. Para avançar no seu estudo, mobilizo condutas elementares e fenómenos complexos, da sucção à vinculação e ao membro-fantasma. Estes fenómenos justificam uma leitura da alucinação a partir de um momentum ou “fase” que designo por evidência perimórfica; com maior brevidade, a propósito do processo de crença e do sistema percepção-linguagem, abordo a alucinação colectiva e o estado perifrástico da evidência. (...) Tentativa e incipientemente, submeto estas ideias ao crivo de realia e rebus da história da medicina e da ciência e de modelos da imaginação. Faço minha uma interrogação do grande filósofo português acerca da mutação da evidência em lei, para terminar evocando o campo moral e a repugnância natural pelo sentimento do falso. (shrink)

L’enfant placé a souvent vécu des traumatismes qui ont impacté sa capacité à réguler ses émotions dans les relations interpersonnelles. Afin d’aider les assistants familiaux et les parents à mieux s’ajuster à l’enfant ont été instaurés des temps d’observation dans les conditions naturelles des interactions adulte-enfant qui ont été enregistrés en vidéo. Le vidéo-feedback a ensuite été utilisé avec chacun des adultes. L’exemple de Matthias montre comment ce dispositif a permis aux parents d’identifier les conséquences de leur comportement sur leur (...) enfant. L’exercice a été plus difficile pour l’assistante familiale davantage centrée sur ses besoins. (shrink)