Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of the Self

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.

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.