ABSTRACT
Since the advent of psychotherapy, talking has been touted as one of the most important mechanisms of change. In fact, it is well-known that Sigmund Freud used the term “the talking cure” to describe the fundamental curative agent in psychoanalysis. In contrast to regulation theory, which emphasizes the role of primary affect in our regulation, mentalization theory stresses the role of our secondary affect. With mentalization, which depends crucially on language, comes the capacity for self-understanding and for perceiving where another person may be coming from. The construct of mentalization was born out of Mary Main’s research on the Adult Attachment Interview. Main had noticed that many individuals with a secure state of mind with respect to attachment demonstrated “metacognitive monitoring,” or actively monitoring what one is saying and thinking in the moment. Increasingly, it became clear that mentalization and the reflective function are not only about metacognitively monitoring speech and thought.
