Mentalizing the Body

Ulrich Schultz-Venrath, MD is Professor of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the Faculty of Health, University of Witten/Herdecke. He is a neurologist (DGN), psychoanalyst (DPV, IPA), and training group analyst (D3G, EFPP, GASI), chair of the Institute of Group Analysis and Mentalizing in Groups (IGAM), and working in private practice in Cologne, Germany.

• Acknowledgments1 Introduction to a Complex Theme1.1 Affects, Brain, and Body: The Development of an Affective Self1.2 Attachment and the Development of a Mentalizing Self1.3 On the Beginnings of the Mentalization Model1.4 The Role of the Body in the Mentalization Model1.5 Personality Disorders Without a Body?2 The Body and Its Relationship With Physicians and Psychotherapists2.1 Mentalizing in the Medical History, the Initial Interview, and the First Contact2.2 The Disappearing Body in Online Video Therapies3 The Discovery of the Body in Early Psychosomatics3.1 Trauma as a Transdiagnostic Affect-Regulation Disorder3.2 The Paris School of Psychosomatics – The Pioneer of the Mentalization Model3.3 Alexithymia and/or Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)3.4 The Diagnostic Dilemma4 Bodily or Mental States? On the Development of a Mentalizing Self4.1 Intersubjective Developmental Conditions for a Body-Self4.2 Body-Mode or Embodied Mentalizing?4.3 When the Psychotherapist’s Body “Goes on Strike” or “Speaks”4.4 Dimensions of Mentalization in Somatoform Stress Disorders5 Somatization or Mentalization?5.1 Prementalizing Modes5.2 The Body-Mode – Clinical Examples5.3 The Teleological Mode and the Body5.4 The Equivalence Mode and the Body5.5 The Pretend Mode and the Body6 Mentalization Enhancement Therapy6.1 Mentalization in Patients With Somatoform Disorders6.2 Interactions That Do Not Promote Mentalization6.3 Mentalizing in Group Therapies for SSD PatientsReferences

“This book is about minding the body. And embodying the mind. The author leads us through the challenging field of psychosomatic disorders and beyond. His clinical and theoretical tool is the model of Mentalizing, expanded to include the body mode as the earliest pre-mentalistic mode. This is an updated psychotherapy based on the historically strong tradition of psychosomatics in Germany, and it is an event when such professional richness now becomes available in English.” - Finn Skårderud, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Agder, Norway. Founder and Chair of the Norwegian Institute of Mentalizing“I liked reading this book. My summary followed the structure of the book: a mix of theory, vignettes, and history – and that is how I like to learn: the historical perspective adds to the understanding of theory as it developed in time. It was good to see how again neuropsychoanalysis helps to connect different psychoanalytical “cultures,” in this case, the French, the Anglo-Saxon, and the German. As Schultz-Venrath points out, there is a lot more research to do to, both to understand how mind and body interact, but also how to treat patients and how to train therapists! This book is a valuable addition to our expanding neuropsychoanalytical library!” - Hessel Boerboom (2025) Mentalizing the body, Neuropsychoanalysis, 27:2, 215-217, DOI: 10.1080/15294145.2025.2562187