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Object Relations
March 20, 2023 @ 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm, Wyman Classroom
2-Year Certificate Program (2YCP)
2022-23, 3rd Term — Mondays, 6:30-7:45pm
Katherine Weissbourd, PhD
View Whole Syllabus
March 20, 2023 — How a theory of mind develops according to Peter Fonagy
[42 pages]
In our eighth and final class we will become acquainted with Peter Fonagy’s work on Reflective Function and Mentalizing. He argues that these capacities, both of which lie at the center of self-organization, are related to the quality of attachment experiences in early childhood. Fonagy’s ideas are rooted in Object Relations Theory and they complement what we have learned these previous weeks.
Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., Jurist, E., and Target, M. (2004), Ch 1 “Attachment and Reflective Function: Their Role in Self-Organization” in Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of the Self. Other Press: New York, pp 23-64.
Point of Focus: How does a patient’s reflective function or capacity to mentalize or lack thereof show up in your work?
Point of Focus: How can a person’s unstable sense of self be explained in terms of failure to mentalize?