User:Jacobisq/Controlled mentalization

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Fourfold dimensions
Mentalization takes place along a series of four parameters or dimensions: Self/Other; Inner/Outer; Cognitive/Affective; Automatic/Controlled.

Each dimension can be exercised in either a balanced or unbalanced way, while effective mentalization also requires a balanced perspective across all four dimensions.


 * 1) Self/Other involves the ability to mentalize about one's own state of mind, as well as about that of another. Lack of balance means an overemphasisis slow on either self or other.
 * 2) Inner/Outer: Here problems can arise from an over-emphasis on external conditions, and a neglect of one's own feelings and experience.
 * 3) Cognitive/Affective are in balance when both dimensions are engaged, as opposed to either an excessive certainty about one's own one-sided ideas, or an overwhelming of thought by floods of emotion.
 * 4) Automatic/Controlled. Automatic (or implicit) mentalizing is a fast-processing unreflective process, calling for little conscious effort or input; whereas controlled mentalizaion (explicit) is slow, effortful, and demanding of full awareness. In a balanced personality, shifts from automatic to controlled smoothly occur when misunderstandings arise in a conversation or social setting, to put things right. Inability to shift from automatic mentalization can lead to a simplistic, one-sided view of the world, especially when emotions run high; while conversely inability to leave controlled mentalization leaves one trapped in a heavy, endlessly ruminative thought-mode.