Bindung und Mentalisierung beim Menschen: Die Entwicklung des affektiven Selbst

After outlining specific features of early mother-child attachment, the authors discuss the question whether secure attachment and specific characteristics of early parental behavior have a functional and causal bearing on the development of mentalization. They adduce empirical and theoretical findings that militate against this idea. Subsequently the authors set out arguments for a social-constructivist view of the emergence of die affective self, in contradistinction to theories of primary «intersubjectivity. ».