Posted by alexandra_k on October 15, 2006, at 6:35:37
In reply to Re: mentalization and BPD, posted by alexandra_k on October 15, 2006, at 6:08:05
and...
thus the ability to mentalize (which, i guess, is a more sophisticated ability than the false belief task lol) is supposed to naturally emerge in the normal course of development.
but of course, sometimes it doesn't.
partly... it is probably about modelling. our parents teach us to mentalize by telling us what they are doing and why and why they did whatever they did. and they help us explain what we are doing and why and so on. but sometimes parents don't do a particularly good job of that... my mother wasn't good at mentalizing. i did things because i was evil etc. so i learned to explain my own behaviour by appealing to my inner state of evil and so forth. and sometimes certain things aren't discussed... certain traumas and stuff like that... and so we don't know how to / can't mentalize them either. like the motivations of abusers and the like... like our motivations when we do things that we are repeatedly told are 'bad' and things like that.
and if you can't mentalize... then you can't explain and you can't express... and so i guess projective identification is a way of getting people to understand because you can't mentalize / explain it. you don't know how to convey what is going on...
i remember studying 'language and communication' (a course in philosophy of language). we learned about how one of the main functions of language in sophisticated societies such as ours is to INFORM. not to CONVINCE but to INFORM. jeepers... that surprised me too... i thought language was about... trying to convince people that you didn't need to be punished and things like that...
:-(
so... mentalization apparantly.
instead of projective identification
:-(
which is considered 'manipulative' i guess...
:-(
(sorry, probably more than you needed or wanted to know lol)
poster:alexandra_k
thread:694669
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20061012/msgs/694958.html