[Mentalizing in liaison psychiatry ?]

In the past few years, there has been an increased and widespread interest for Mentalization-Based Therapies (MBTs). Although originally developed by Anthony Bateman and Peter Fonagy for the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), the scope of MBTs has now been broadened and is relevant in liaison psychiatry, not only to cope with personality disorders or phenomena such as emotional dysregulation and suicidal behaviours, but also because being ill and expericencieng a dependency-laden relationship with health workers tend to reduce mentalization capacities, thereby increasing the probability of misunderstandings, conflicts, treatment drop-outs or medical errors. We provide clinicians with clues to identify failures and reboot the mentalization process among their patients and colleagues.