Peter Fonagy
Co-developed mentalization-based therapy and its theory.
Co-creator of mentalization-based therapy, built on the capacity to understand behavior in terms of mental states.
techniques
Mentalizing is the capacity to understand and imagine one’s own and other people’s thoughts.
Who they were
Born in Hungary and based in Britain, Peter Fonagy is Professor of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Developmental Science at University College London and Chief Executive of the Anna Freud Centre. With psychiatrist Anthony Bateman he developed MBT for borderline personality disorder, and he advanced influential theories of mentalization and epistemic trust in developmental psychology.
Terms they cared about
Ideas worth knowing
Their techniques
How the work was done
Their big idea
Mentalization Theory
Secure attachment builds the mind’s ability to understand itself and others; therapy restores it.
The approach they founded
Mentalization-Based Therapy
Strengthens the ability to read your own and others’ minds, especially when emotions run high.
Questions in their spirit
What they’d ask you
Sit with one. Answer online, or in the app.
Carry the idea forward
Fonagy — What they’d ask you
Psipas asks you one small, honest question at a time — and builds the picture from your answers.