Responding to mentalization invitations in psychotherapy sessions-A conversation analysis approach

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychotherapy Research
• Linguistics

Background:

• Mentalization is considered crucial for therapeutic change.
• Mentalization has been predominantly viewed as an individual trait, not an interactional process.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate mentalization as an interactional phenomenon within psychotherapy.
• To analyze how resistance to mentalizing functions in therapeutic conversations.

Main Methods:

• Conversation analysis of therapy session excerpts.
• Focus on sessions targeting increased patient mentalizing capacity.

Main Results:

• Resistance to mentalizing can be a linguistic resource, not solely indicative of lacking capacity.
• This resistance can actively demonstrate the patient's ability to mentalize.

Conclusions:

• Rethinking resistance in psychotherapy: it may reflect, rather than impede, mentalization.
• Implications for psychotherapy practice and the study of therapeutic processes.