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Mentalization-based treatment for adults (MBT-PD) evolved out of the treatment of adult personality disorders (Bateman & Fonagy, 2016). The purpose of this book is to extend MBT-PD to therapeutic work with children (MBT-C). The group of authors assembled is extremely accomplished and represents a global quorum of esteemed professionals. The book is organized as a manual for the short-term-focused treatment of school-age children (roughly ages 5–12 years) drawing from psychodynamic principles, affect regulation theory, attachment theory, family therapy, and the empirical theory of mentalization. MBT-C aims to both increase the child’s capacity for self-regulation and support parents to provide for the emotional needs of their children (Fonagy & Allison, 2012).
The basic MBT-C time-limited model is 12 individual sessions. It is possible to offer up to three blocks of 12 MBT-C sessions (to a maximum of 36 sessions) based on a review process with parents and the child. In these cases, the treatment is never open-ended but continues to be time-limited, with a clear focus and aims. These procedural points flow from two central theoretical assumptions underlying the construct of mentalization: 1) the view that psychopathology in adults corresponds to derailment of normal development in children, and 2) the process of mentalization is an umbrella-term consolidating normal developmental processes (psychodynamic integration, affect regulation, attachment, symbolic thought, reflective functioning) that can potentially go awry in a variety of combinations. Thus, one concept, mentalization, can potentially account for a variety of different presenting problems and can be treated with specified technical strategies. Also, because of its articulated and consolidating framework, the concept of mentalization potentially lends itself to empirical as well as qualitative analysis. It hints at the prospect of offering clarification as to what aspects of treatment work best for which chi