The ability to identify one’s thoughts in everyday situations and the ability to think before acting based on the past, present and future perspectives of our actions is mentalization. The capacity of mentalization impacts our success in social interactions and interpersonal relationships. Many people suffer from borderline personality disorder. Mentalization-based therapy (MBT) helps them to manage their personalities by triggering in them a sense of mentalization. The focus of this therapy is to make people understand how our mental state influences our actions and leads us to behave in a more socially acceptable way.

Since mentalization therapy’s main focus is on treating people with borderline personality disorder, let's understand what borderline personality is. A person suffering from this disorder suffers from a sense of abandonment. This brings instability in his/her personality and there are frequent mood swings. There are a lot of problems in maintaining good relationships. It affects people of younger age groups like adolescents and young adults more. People tend to get a bit stable in their personalities as they advance in age. 

Mentalization therapy has roots in the attachment theory of John Bowlby. He was a British Psychologist and Psychiatrist who laid the foundation of the idea that there is an innate need in every child to have an emotional bonding with people they are closely in contact with like parents, siblings, caregivers, etc. It gives a sense of emotional security to them and their mentalization is proper if they are in secure relationships in childhood. Those who do not get emotional security and a sense of attachment during their growing up years, tend to develop behavioural problems like  borderline personality disorder.

How does mentalization-based therapy work?

The therapist talks to the person and helps him/her understand the difficulties. He discusses and tries to find the root cause of those difficulties. Over time, there are many sessions. The sessions can be individualized or a combination of individual and group. The focus is on difficulties in the current life and how it can be removed by gaining an understanding about its roots in the past. This helps in cementing barriers in relationships and how life is dealt with in general. It takes time to feel normal and happy as lots of talking and trust-building is required between the therapist and the person who is going through problems. Sometimes medications can also be prescribed to individuals undergoing this therapy. 

Many people, especially in a country like India, think that all psychological issues can be sorted on their own but this seldom happens. People keep on carrying unhappiness and grudges year after year. So it is best to seek professional advice from psychiatrists.

Though mentalization-based therapy has been found effective in borderline personality disorders, it is helpful in other psychological conditions as well such as addiction, depression, antisocial personality, eating disorders etc. It helps in cementing barriers between individuals and their parents. It has been found that those people whose mental health conditions have not improved from any other therapy have found mentalization-based therapy to be effective at last.