The Object as Agent of Mentalization

Mentalization, our ability to understand people's behaviour in terms of mental states (feelings, thoughts, desires, intentions, etc.), is linked with our capacity to create symbolic representations of our inner states. From a psychodynamic point of view this is a developmental achievement re­lated to adequate maternal care, more specifically to the mother's mir­roring function. This proposition has been confirmed by recent experi­mental evidence. A clinical case is presented showing that the mirroring function of the therapist, and not his interpretations, helped the analysand to create symbolic representations of a recent traumatic expe­rience. Through this experience in the here and now, the analyst may be able to approach early childhood traumas (described by Peter Fonagy and others as "procedural memories") inaccessible to analytic interpre­tation