Mentalizing and men's mental health

helping men to keep mind in mind in clinical settings

Helena Crockford

Marco Pellegrini

pp. 557-577

in: Roger Kingerlee, Martin Seager, Luke Sullivan (eds), The Palgrave handbook of male psychology and mental health, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019

Abstract

Mentalization theory and practice are proving helpful and effective in addressing a range of mental health problems, including those more prevalent amongst men. We summarise the literature on gender differences in mentalizing and related concepts and describe mentalization-based interventions developed for antisocial personality disorder, alexithymia, sexual addiction, and functional somatic disorder, all more prevalent in the male population. We illustrate ways in which the mentalizing stance can address the barriers for men in readily accessing help from traditional services and offer clinical examples.