Lives of the Unconscious

Everyone has probably wondered to themselves: "Why did I just do that?" or even, "Why did my partner actually behave like that?" The ability to relate and interpret one's own actions and behavior, and that of another person, to mental states is called the ability to mentalize. In some people it is well developed, while in others it is rather fragile, as is often the case, for example, with so-called "borderline personality disorders". This episode deals with how we develop the ability to mentalize and what the consequences are when we fail to mentalize.