Published: 2021-12-31

Mentalization in education of people with profound intellectual disabilities

Danuta Kopeć
Pedagogical Forum
Section: Articles and essays
https://doi.org/10.21697/fp.2021.2.16

Abstract

The concept of mentalization in the field of scientific reflection has appeared relatively recently. It is a transdisciplinary construct with the theory of attachment as its basic interpretive framework. Most researchers are of the opinion that it requires further conceptualization and empirical concretization. The article is a preliminary attempt to describe mentalization occurring in the relationship between a special education teacher and a person with profound intellectual disabilities in the educational reality. The text will present the definition of mentalization and its dimensions: automatic and controlled mentalization; cognitive and affective mentalization: self-oriented and object-oriented mentalization. It will also characterize the pre-mentalization modes of experiencing reality and the dimensions of mature mentalization. The challenges of disruptions in the course of mentalization experienced by a special educator in contact with a person with profound intellectual disabilities will also be addressed. The disruptions are exemplified by, inter alia, treating a person with profound intellectual disability as a “screen” and imputing their “identity”. In the context of disruptions in the course of mentalizing, the consequences of the transition of a special educator from mature mentalization to pre-mentalization modes of experiencing reality will be presented for a person with profound intellectual disabilities. The summary will present conclusions on the importance of the mentalizing process in the course of the education process of a person with profound intellectual disabilities.

Keywords:

mentalization, mentalizing, people with profound intellectual disabilities, pre-mentalization modes of experiencing reality

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Citation rules

Kopeć, D. (2021). Mentalization in education of people with profound intellectual disabilities. Pedagogical Forum, 11(2), 225–237. https://doi.org/10.21697/fp.2021.2.16

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