"Trust No One": A Phenomenological Account of Hypermentalization In Borderline Personality Disorder

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Issue Date
2022-06-30
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en
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Abstract
Hypermentalizing is a specific type of mentalizing problem that is characteristic of borderline personality disorder (BPD). In short, it is making assumptions about other people’s state of mind that go far beyond observable facts. According to mentalization-based theory (MT), hypermentalization is the result of a lack of mentalizing capacities caused by a lack of epistemic trust. I argue that this is an insufficient explanation of hypermentalization in BPD. What is at stake in BPD is not just a lack of epistemic trust - which is trust in the information provided by others - but rather a more fundamental lack of trust: the lack of trust in other people’s good will and intentions. I suggest that it is a lack of this basic trust that results in hypermentalization.
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Faculteit der Filosofie, Theologie en Religiewetenschappen
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