ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the second growth spurt, shows that the more sophisticated forms of mentalization, which mature gradually from around two years after birth until after adolescence, and considers the neural structures, essential during this growth spurt. It discusses multi-family mentalization-based therapy, an approach developed by the German child psychiatrist, Eia Asen, and his colleagues at the Marlborough Family Service in London. The chapter describes the second wave of development in higher-order mental competences and reviews a therapy process that challenged the prefrontal compass and the capacities that emerge in the second wave of development. During the first period of the second growth spurt, the limbic areas develop or reorganise; this means that the formation of representations is mediated primarily by the brain’s emotional association areas. Both the first and the second growth spurt are completed with a process of pruning and parcellation.
