ABSTRACT
Personality disorder (PD) patients have difficulty becoming aware of and comprehending their mental states, reflecting on them, and using the knowledge about what they themselves and others feel and think to lead socially enriched life, resolve problems and conflicts, pursue and achieve goals, and reduce suffering. Metacognitive skills vary depending on the quality of the relational context within which one operates. Patients with schizophrenia, who typically experience more pervasive metacognitive impairment, display better functioning in good psychotherapeutic relationship. Identification consists of recognising one’s mental states and distinguishing between them. Identifying one’s inner state makes it possible to define and describe the thoughts, beliefs, images and memories unfolding in the mind. Identification and Relating Variables processes together form Metacognitive Monitoring, which is very often impaired in PD patients, who frequently resort to generic expressions like “I’m tense”, “I feel uneasy”, “It’s annoying me”, “I’m going running because I feel on edge” to cover their difficulties in identifying the emotions they feel.
