Anthony Bateman

Anthony Bateman
University College London | UCL · Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology

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220
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Publications

Publications (220)
Book
A complete and practical guide offering a concise overview of mentalization-based treatment (MBT) and its application in different situations and with different groups of patients to help improve the treatment of mental health disorders. Featuring an introduction to mentalizing and the evidence base to support it, followed by the principles of MBT...
Chapter
Mentalization-based treatment (MBT) for psychosis focuses on the decoupling of bodily and mental experience as well as the stresses of mentalizing during social interaction. In a framework of mentalizing, psychotic phenomena can be represented as severe disturbances to the experience of oneself as a coherent unit. Clinical treatment that aims to in...
Chapter
Interactive mentalizing is a problem for couples who are struggling to relate to each other constructively. Mentalization-based treatment for couples (MBT-CO) is a structured intervention that targets the ability to see things from the other person’s perspective, and the recovery of epistemic trust. Initially couples are asked to identify their own...
Chapter
In MBT for families (MBT-F), psychoeducation leads to learning about mentalizing problems. Techniques that stabilize mentalizing in all family members are discussed. The stabilizing of individual and interactive mentalizing in the family is achieved through exploration of identified problems using the MBT Loop to bring the family members together s...
Chapter
MBT-Children (MBT-C) targets the mentalizing of children and their families. A range of techniques that are tailored to the child’s mentalizing capacity are discussed in this chapter. MBT-C involves working not only with the child but also with the parents, to support their capacity to adopt a mentalizing stance toward their child. The mentalizing...
Chapter
There is considerable evidence of mentalizing problems in patients with eating disorders, with non-mentalizing modes, especially in relation to body weight and shape, being dominant. The mentalizing model assumes the existence of developmental vulnerabilities, especially during adolescence, and that the range of different symptoms associated with e...
Chapter
A mentalizing framework for understanding narcissism is outlined, and the resulting modifications of basic mentalization-based treatment (MBT) for narcissistic personality disorder are discussed. Treatment of patients with pathological narcissism requires an emphasis on empathic validation and support of the vulnerable “I-mode.” The dangers of not...
Chapter
Mentalizing or “mind-wondering” is central to social interaction, culture, and morality. In our everyday life we are all philosophers of the mind, wondering what is going on in other people’s heads, and tracking our own thoughts and feelings. Several terms have been used to cover this territory of thinking about thoughts—they include, among others,...
Chapter
This chapter describes the structure of mentalization-based treatment group therapy (MBT-G) for adults and adolescents, and explains how to focus on the mentalizing process in the group. Clinical examples are used for illustrative purposes throughout, and the progress of the patient who was described in Chapter 4 is discussed. The introduction of n...
Chapter
The development of mentalizing and non-mentalizing is discussed along with the importance of mentalizing as a psychotherapy process in the treatment of mental health problems. A defining feature of mental disorder is the experience of “wild imagination,” and we consider that mentalizing difficulties—that is, the tendency to get caught up in unhelpf...
Chapter
From a mentalizing perspective, symptoms of depression arise from reactions to threats to attachment relationships—and thus threats to the self—and associated impairments in mentalizing problems. Mentalization-based treatment (MBT) for depression targets mentalizing impairments, dominant attachment styles, and problems with epistemic trust. Depress...
Chapter
From a mentalizing perspective, in attachment trauma an individual’s experience of adversity is compounded by the sense that they have to be able to bear that experience alone. An overwhelming experience cannot be calibrated and managed within an attachment relationship. Normally another mind provides the social referencing that enables an individu...
Chapter
The case of a patient who is receiving mentalization-based treatment (MBT) is described. All of the stages and interventions of MBT, including interventions for suicidality and violence, are illustrated across the patient’s treatment trajectory. The formulation agreed with the patient is the focus for treatment. Clinical examples are presented to i...
Chapter
MBT for avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) targets hypermentalizing and hypomentalizing modes along with the problems associated with mentalizing problems found in the polarities of self/other mentalizing which become apparent when the patient engages with their social world. Reducing overuse of the self is central to treatment. The experience of...
Chapter
Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and violence result from a loss of mentalizing. Mentalization-based treatment for antisocial personality disorder (MBT-ASPD) is delivered primarily as a group intervention. Individuals with ASPD are more likely to learn from those whom they consider to be similar to themselves, so the task of the MBT clinician...
Chapter
This chapter outlines the use of mentalizing as an essential process for unifying teams and creating a caring environment in relation to schools, fostering of children, and caring for babies in adverse circumstances. An individual’s mentalizing is strongly influenced by their social environment. Any intervention that aims to treat a person with men...
Chapter
The principles of mentalization-based treatment (MBT) as they are applied in clinical practice are discussed. Both the clinician and the patient need to learn to manage their anxiety, as any stress can potentially undermine the ability to mentalize. This chapter focuses in particular on how to maintain the appropriate balance between attachment anx...
Chapter
Social mentalizing informs the theory and practice of mentalization-based treatment for adolescents (MBT-A). Adolescence is, among other things, a time for establishing a self-identity and learning about how to interact effectively with a peer group. A focus on balancing mentalizing in peer and family interactions is crucial, with special attention...
Chapter
Emergency care teams need to organize their response to crises around shared assessment procedures. This chapter describes how MBT can inform emergency care when a crisis is handled by the multidisciplinary team of mental health practitioners in psychiatric emergency settings. Development of the formulation according to mentalizing principles creat...
Article
Objective: Mentalization-based therapy (MBT) is an evidence-supported, long-term psychotherapy program developed to treat borderline personality disorder (BPD). A short-term, 20-week adaptation to the original MBT format including case formulation, psychoeducation, and group and individual therapy has recently been proposed. The current case mater...
Article
Full-text available
W niniejszym artykule przedstawiono nowatorski program terapii opartej na mentalizacji (mentalization-based treatment-MBT) dla rodziców, opracowany z myślą o rodzinach, w których występuje ryzyko krzywdzenia dzieci. Program MBT Lighthouse ("Latarnia morska") ma na celu zapobieganie krzywdzeniu dzieci poprzez rozwijanie wrażliwe-go rodzicielstwa. Pr...
Article
Full-text available
Background Psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder is often extensive and resource-intensive. Mentalisation-based therapy is a psychodynamically oriented treatment option for borderline personality disorder, which includes a case formulation, psychoeducation, and group and individual therapy. The evidence on short-term compared with long-...
Article
Law enforcement violence has emerged as a leading public health concern, and law enforcement officers are themselves at greater risk for a range of psychiatric disorders. Drawing on the significant empirical support for mentalization-based treatment (MBT), this paper explores the use of MBT as a transdiagnostic psychotherapy for law enforcement pro...
Article
Previous research has repeatedly demonstrated positive associations between negative affect (NA) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms in daily life, but studies have rarely addressed potential effects of positive affect (PA). Consequently, little is known about how PA in daily life covaries with symptoms of BPD. The authors assessed t...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction The heterogeneity in people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and the range of specialised psychotherapies means that people with certain BPD characteristics might benefit more or less from different types of psychotherapy. Identifying moderating characteristics of individuals is a key to refine and tailor standard treatments...
Article
Full-text available
Mentalization-based treatment in groups (MBT-G) has never been tested in adolescents with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in a randomized controlled trial. The current study aimed to test the long-term effectiveness of MBT-G in an adolescent sample with BPD or BPD features (≥ 4 DSM-5 BPD criteria). Hundred and eleven patients with BPD (n = 10...
Article
The article explores ideas about the role of group mentalizing—the experience of joint attention and shared intentionality—as a process that can support the emergence of more collaborative and salutogenic social functioning. This is based on developmental and evolutionary thinking about the importance of joint attention in human social cognitive de...
Article
Full-text available
Background Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), although associated with very significant health and social burden, is an under-researched mental disorder for which clinically effective and cost-effective treatment methods are urgently needed. No intervention has been established for prevention or as the treatment of choice for this disorder. Me...
Article
Full-text available
Terminating a therapeutic relationship can be a challenging phase with patients suffering from borderline personality disorder. Despite the critical importance of the termination phase, the proportion of psychotherapy literature devoted to the demands and challenges of this phase is small. This paper describes a mentalization-based approach to dete...
Preprint
Full-text available
Introduction The heterogeneity in people with BPD and the range of specialised psychotherapies means that people with certain BPD characteristics might benefit more or less from different types of psychotherapy. Identifying moderating characteristics of individuals is a key to refine and tailor standard treatments so they match the specificities of...
Article
Full-text available
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has both a profound effect on mental health and affects how psychosocial interventions are delivered. In this paper, we outline particular difficulties patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) may encounter as a result of the pandemic. We also consider changes in the provision of treatment, specificall...
Article
Full-text available
Social functioning can be severely impaired in non-affective psychotic disorder (NAPD). Current models of psychosis pathogenesis do not tend to focus on social dysfunction and pharmacological treatment fails to ameliorate it. In this article, we propose that mentalization theory provides a valuable contribution to the understanding and treatment of...
Article
In dit artikel wordt een innovatieve, op het mentaliserend vermogen van ouders gerichte interventie gepresenteerd voor gezinnen waarin het risico op kindermishandeling aanwezig is. Doel van dit zogenoemde Lighthouse MBT Parenting Programme is het voorkomen van kindermishandeling, door de sensitiviteit van ouders als verzorgers te bevorderen. Het pr...
Article
Full-text available
Participants (n = 134) treated in a randomized controlled trial with mentalization-based treatment (MBT) compared with structured clinical management were followed up for 8 years after starting treatment in terms of the initial primary outcome of the trial-namely, suicide attempts, self-harm, and hospitalization-as well as service use and functiona...
Presentation
Full-text available
Introductory MBT Training, MBT Practitioner Training
Article
Avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) is amongst the most severe personality disorders (PDs) and associated with a marked reduction in social functioning. However, AVPD research is sparse and little is known about treatment efficacy. In adolescents with AVPD even less is known about the disorder, and no studies have investigated the effect of psycho...
Article
Full-text available
Evidence-based treatments for borderline personality disorder (BPD), including mentalization-based treatment (MBT), have not adequately examined changes in positive affect (PA) in the treatment of BPD. Therefore, we developed a new intervention, “mentalizing positive affect,” and evaluated its effect on PA, negative affect, BPD severity, ego-resili...
Article
Full-text available
In general, research has primarily focused on understanding the psychopathology of borderline personality disorder (BPD), but there has been a paucity of research on processes associated with positive mental health. The present study sought to address this gap in knowledge by investigating associations between daily positive and negative emotions a...
Article
Full-text available
Personality disorders (PD) are common and burdensome mental disorders. The treatment of individuals with PD represents one of the more challenging areas in the field of mental health and health care providers need evidence-based recommendations to best support patients with PDs. Clinical guidelines serve this purpose and are formulated by expert co...
Article
Full-text available
Background Mentalizing, the mental capacity to understand oneself and others in terms of mental states, has been found to be reduced in some mental disorders such as Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Some studies have suggested that Eating Disorders (EDs) may also be associated with impairments in mentalizing, but studies have not always yield...
Chapter
2nd edition of Handbook of Mentalizing in Mental Health Practice edited by A. Bateman & P. Fonagy. This chapter outlines the basic principles in conducting mentalization-based group therapy.
Article
Full-text available
Background Psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder is often lengthy and resource-intensive. However, the current length of outpatient treatments is arbitrary and based on trials that never tested if the treatment intensity could be reduced. As a result, there is insufficient evidence to inform the decision between short-term and long-term...
Article
Findings from randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses suggest that there are several efficacious treatments for borderline personality disorder, including those based on cognitive behavior theories and psychodynamic theories. In addition, there are generalist and adjunctive approaches. These treatments and the corresponding evidence associat...
Article
This article introduces an innovative mentalization-based treatment (MBT) parenting intervention for families where children are at risk of maltreatment. The Lighthouse MBT Parenting Programme aims to prevent child maltreatment by promoting sensitive caregiving in parents. The programme is designed to enhance parents' capacity for curiosity about t...
Article
Full-text available
This article reports a delayed-treatment randomized controlled trial of a mentalization-based intervention for families or significant others living with or supporting a person with borderline personality disorder (BPD). In all, 56 family members/significant others living with/supporting people with a diagnosis of BPD were randomized either to imme...
Article
Full-text available
People with personality disorders frequently face stigma, ignorance and pessimism regarding the treatability of their disorders. This is despite substantial progress that has been made in developing a number of effective evidence based psychotherapeutic treatments. However, expertise in how to systematically deliver these treatments in a sustainabl...
Presentation
Full-text available
Oral presentation. Abstract: Objective The purpose of the study is to investigate associations between daily positive and negative emotions, ego-resiliency and quality of life in borderline personality disorder (BPD). More specifically, to test whether positive emotions predict increases in resilience and quality of life when controlling for the ef...
Article
In this paper we conceptualize borderline personality disorder as a disorder of mentalizing, social cognition, and loss of resilience. Several treatment approaches are effective, and meta-analyses suggest that there are few substantive differences in effectiveness between them and between specialized and non-specialized approaches. We propose that...
Article
This article sets out the relevance of recent theoretical developments in the areas of mentalizing, attachment and epistemic trust in relation to group therapy. It begins with an account of the role of mentalizing in the attachment context in the development of epistemic trust—defined as trust in the authenticity and personal relevance of interpers...
Article
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is one of the most prevalent, and most disabling, personality disorders. There is increasing consensus that the disorder is characterized by 3 related core features: severe emotion dysregulation, strong impulsivity, and social-interpersonal dysfunction.¹ Individuals diagnosed as having BPD were historically con...
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Full-text available
Background Previous research suggests that antisocial individuals present impairment in social cognitive processing, more specifically in emotion recognition (ER) and perspective taking (PT). The first aim of the present study was to investigate the recognition of a wide range of emotional expressions and visual PT capacities in a group of incarcer...
Article
Full-text available
Developmental clinical research in recent years has highlighted the value treating psychotic disorders at the earliest stage to reduce long-term morbidity. It is now suggested that treatment during the clinical high risk states (CHR), preceding by 1–4 years the onset of psychotic disorders, may delay or prevent the onset of psychosis, and contribut...
Article
Full-text available
Background In this multi-centre randomized controlled trial (RCT) we compared modified mentalisation-based treatment (MBT-ED) to specialist supportive clinical management (SSCM-ED) in patients with eating disorders (EDs) and borderline personality disorder symptoms (BPD). This group of patients presents complex challenges to clinical services, and...
Article
BACKGROUND: In this multi-centre RCT we compared modified Mentalization Based Therapy (MBT-ED) to Specialist Supportive Clinical Management (SSCM-ED) in patients with Eating disorders (ED) and Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms (BPD). This group of patients presents complex challenges to clinical services and a treatment which addresses their...
Article
Background: In this multi-centre randomized controlled trial (RCT) we compared modified mentalisation-based treatment (MBT-ED) to specialist supportive clinical management (SSCM-ED) in patients with eating disorders (EDs) and borderline personality disorder symptoms (BPD). This group of patients presents complex challenges to clinical services, and...
Article
Full-text available
Background Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is an under-researched mental disorder. Systematic reviews and policy documents identify ASPD as a priority area for further treatment research because of the scarcity of available evidence to guide clinicians and policymakers; no intervention has been established as the treatment of choice for this...
Article
Full-text available
Background Many patients with a non-affective psychotic disorder suffer from impairments in social functioning and social cognition. To target these impairments, mentalization-based treatment for psychotic disorder, a psychodynamic treatment rooted in attachment theory, has been developed. It is expected to improve social cognition, and thereby to...
Article
The papers in this special issue offer evidence of personality disorder as a dysfunction of higher-order cognition, which is conceptualized variously as a disorder of mentalizing, metacognition, mindfulness, social cognition and reflective function. While there may be differences in the scope of these concepts, they all imply that higher-order ment...
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Full-text available
The role of mentalizing in relation to borderline personality disorder (BPD) is examined with a view to achieving improved levels of mentalizing in BPD patients as a therapeutic target. The article seeks to explain why mentalizing works as a treatment target for BPD, and suggests that a mentalizing approach to BPD may be at the core of any successf...
Article
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) frequently co-occurs with mood disorders and each influences the course and response to treatment of the other, potentially reducing beneficial outcome. Mentalizing, the ability to infer one's own and others' mental states, is a key factor in both disorders, being a major component of affect regulation and self...
Article
The evidence base for the effective treatment of personality disorders is insufficient. Most of the existing evidence on personality disorder is for the treatment of borderline personality disorder, but even this is limited by the small sample sizes and short follow-up in clinical trials, the wide range of core outcome measures used by studies, and...
Article
This paper provides an overview of mentalization-based therapy (MBT). Multiple strands of research evidence converge to suggest that affect dysregulation, impulsivity and unstable interpersonal relationships are core features of borderline personality disorder (BPD). The MBT approach to BPD attempts to provide a theoretically consistent way of conc...
Chapter
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TlKTAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Article
In this chapter, we apply the mentalization construct to provide a framework for understanding not only emerging personality disorder in adolescence but also adolescent breakdown more broadly (see also Chap. 12, current volume). We summarize the neurodevelopmental changes that occur in adolescence and how these temporarily compromise different face...
Article
Full-text available
Background: The NOURISHED study: Nice OUtcomes for Referrals with Impulsivity, Self Harm and Eating Disorders.Eating Disorders (ED) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are both difficult to treat and the combination presents particular challenges. Both are associated with vulnerability to loss of mentalization (awareness of one's own and oth...

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