ABSTRACT
In the past 20 years, the field of developmental disabilities has witnessed a surge of interest in identifying the sources of difficult-to-manage behavior, including aggression and severe self-injury. This chapter argues that mentalistic formulations abound in the field of developmental disabilities, and they foster unhelpful approaches to addressing serious aggression and self-injury. Moreover, mentalistic practices perpetuate resistance to more effective analysis and treatment of such problems. The belief that behavior originates from something that happens inside of us, such as a thought, feeling, or impulse, with the resulting behavior being an expression of the mind, from which that thought, feeling, or impulse emanated, is called mentalism. A number of researchers have suggested that staff attributions are associated with how staff responds to challenging behavior. The chapter addresses a few common ways by which practitioners are induced to misattribute internal sources as causes of behavior problems and discusses harmful effects of the resulting practices.
