title: Adversity, attachment, and mentalizing.
abstract: The papers in this special issue offer evidence of personality disorder as a dysfunction of higher-order cognition, which is conceptualized variously as a disorder of mentalizing, metacognition, mindfulness, social cognition and reflective function. While there may be differences in the scope of these concepts, they all imply that higher-order mental processing is at the core of personality function. In this commentary, the authors use mentalizing as an umbrella term for these concepts, and argue that it is the complex interaction of adversity, attachment and mentalizing that leads to the characteristic symptoms of borderline personality disorder and other personality disorders. Evidence is provided from the papers in this special issue, comments made on the findings and further avenues for research are recommended.
authors.affiliation: Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 7HB, UK; The Anna Freud Centre, 12 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3 5SU, UK. Electronic address: p.fonagy@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fonagy
authors.affiliation: Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 7HB, UK; The Anna Freud Centre, 12 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3 5SU, UK.
authors.forename: Anthony W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Bateman
mesh_terms: D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000067489:Metacognition; D064866:Mindfulness; D009769:Object Attachment; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D056345:Theory of Mind