Elliot Jurist

Childhood has long been recognized as a developmental process. This book examines parenting through a similar lens, offering mental health providers a mentalizing framework for working with parents at all stages of parental development. Parenting is a developmental process that fluctuates and transforms throughout the lifespan. To support working with parents, the authors present a mentalizing approach that considers the current socio-cultural environment and its impact on the developmental process of parenting. This approach integrates a wealth of psychodynamic clinical research, theory, and practice. This book provides the reader with principles to inform evaluation, formulation, and treatment in their work with parents. It provides clinical examples followed by clinical formulations offering illustrations of the application of one approach to diverse clinical challenges in the context of working with parents, grandparents, and other caregivers.

Mentalization--the effort to make sense of our own and others' actions, behavior, and internal states--is something we all do. And it is a capacity that all psychotherapies aim to improve: the better we are at mentalizing, the more resilient and flexible we tend to be. This concise, engaging book offers a brief overview of mentalization in psychotherapy, focusing on how to help patients understand and reflect on their emotional experiences. Elliot Jurist integrates cognitive science research and psychoanalytic theory to break down "mentalized affectivity" into discrete processes that therapists can cultivate in session. The book interweaves clinical vignettes with discussions of memoirs by comedian Sarah Silverman, poet Tracy Smith, filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, and neurologist Oliver Sacks. A reproducible assessment instrument (the Mentalized Affectivity Scale) can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. Winner--American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis Book Prize (Theory)

Mentalization--the effort to make sense of our own and others' actions, behavior, and internal states--is something we all do. And it is a capacity that all psychotherapies aim to improve: the better we are at mentalizing, the more resilient and flexible we tend to be. This concise, engaging book offers a brief overview of mentalization in psychotherapy, focusing on how to help patients understand and reflect on their emotional experiences. Elliot Jurist integrates cognitive science research and psychoanalytic theory to break down "mentalized affectivity" into discrete processes that therapists can cultivate in session. The book interweaves clinical vignettes with discussions of memoirs by comedian Sarah Silverman, poet Tracy Smith, filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, and neurologist Oliver Sacks. A reproducible assessment instrument (the Mentalized Affectivity Scale) can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. Winner--American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis Book Prize (Theory)