Mentalizing the Body

Mentalizing the Body brings together theory and practice with the latest neurobiological and developmental psychological findings to understand the relevance of the body in a wide range of mental disorders, especially personality and somatization disorders.

Ulrich Schultz-Venrath provides insight on individual bodily phenomena within psychotherapeutic treatments – experienced by patients as well as therapists – and focuses on the importance of the intentionality of bodily symptoms and how they can be integrated in the talking cure. Mentalizing the Body expands the work of Anthony Bateman and Peter Fonagy, adding the “body mode” in contrast to the popular concept of “embodied mentalizing.” Promoting mentalizing in psychotherapy while taking the body into account helps not only patients with somatoform and eating disorders, but also those whose psychological complaints have a missing connection to the body. Schultz-Venrath provides detailed insight on the range of therapies and treatments available, from individual and group psychotherapies to body, art, and music therapy, with clinical case studies and diagrams throughout.

Mentalizing the Body will be of great interest to practitioners and researchers – from psychoanalysts and psychotherapists to psychiatrists and psychologists seeking to understand the mentalization model, and all healthcare professionals working with severe mental disorders.

Ulrich Schultz-Venrath, MD is Professor of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the Faculty of Health, University of Witten/Herdecke. He is a neurologist (DGN), psychoanalyst (DPV, IPA), and training group analyst (D3G, EFPP, GASI), chair of the Institute of Group Analysis and Mentalizing in Groups (IGAM), and working in private practice in Cologne, Germany.