Understanding minds: Different functions and different disorders? The contribution of psychotherapy research

Semerari, Antonio; Carcione, Antonino; Dimaggio, Giancarlo; Nicolò, Giuseppe; Procacci, Michele

doi:10.1080/10503300500536953

Cited by 145 publications

(123 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

116

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This is consistent with a wealth of studies showing that alexithymia is correlated with many adult pathologies (Taylor et al, 1997;Vanheule, Desmet, Meganck, & Bogaerts, 2007a). However, the finding that irony comprehension is impaired in a treatment seeking population without any form of psychosis is something new, and is consistent with the assertion that elements of the metacognitive system may be impaired even in non-psychotic populations (Allen, Fonagy, & Bateman, 2008;Semerari et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

“…Moreover, theory (Dimaggio, Lysaker, Carcione, Nicolò, & Semerari, 2008;Semerari et al, 2007) and empirical work in the areas of psychopathology (Lysaker et al, in press a; Lysaker et al, 2007;Lysaker et al, 2010) and neuroscience (Mitchell, Macrae, & Banaji, 2006; Saxe, Moran, Scholz, & Gabrieli, 2006) suggest that these dysfunctions may be related to each other in some pathologies or be partially independent elements of a metacognitive network. In this study, we investigated the hypotheses that clinical and non-clinical groups would differ in terms of alexithymia and the appreciation of irony; we also expected that alexithymia and irony comprehension (ToM) would correlate with measures of symptoms and PD traits; a third exploratory hypothesis was that alexithymia and irony comprehension would be only weakly related to one another.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Alexithymia and Irony Comprehension and their Relations with Depression, Anxiety, General Symptomatology and Personality Disorders: A Comparison Between Clinical and Non-Clinical Participants

Dimaggio¹,

Paviglianiti²,

Carcione

et al. 2011

PSYCHOL BELG

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Poor awareness of one's own emotions and theory of mind appears to be a feature of many adult psychiatric conditions. In this study, we explored whether alexithymia and poor understanding of irony, both elements of the metacognitive system, were impaired in a clinical sample (n = 20) when compared to a non-clinical group (n = 35). We expected that both elements were impaired in the clinical group and explored whether they were correlated with personality disorder traits, global symptomatology, depression and anxiety. Finally, we sought to investigate whether alexithymia and difficulties in irony comprehension were related to each other. Results partially supported our hypotheses. Both emotional awareness and irony comprehension were impaired in the clinical vs. non-clinical sample. Alexithymia was related to personality disorder

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alexithymia and Irony Comprehension and their Relations with Depression, Anxiety, General Symptomatology and Personality Disorders: A Comparison Between Clinical and Non-Clinical Participants

Dimaggio¹,

Paviglianiti²,

Carcione

et al. 2011

PSYCHOL BELG

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Irrespectively of their therapeutic orientation, clinicians can focus on problems in the different metacognitive domains and adjust their response to the patients' current abilities to make sense of mental states, taking into account the heterogeneity in BPD patients (Bateman & METACOGNITION AND SYMPTOM CHANGE IN BPD 23 Fonagy, 2004;Leiman & Stiles, 2001;Levy & Scala, 2015;Ribeiro et al, 2013;Semerari et al, 2007). For example, a combination of first-line interventions aimed at promoting basic mastery strategies, which would produce good outcomes, can be coupled with interventions aimed at improving basic self-reflective skills, such as awareness of one's own mental processes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Metacognition includes a range of capacities human beings use to identify mental states, both in oneself and others, reason about them, forming complex and integrated representations of oneself and others, and use mentalistic knowledge for problem solving (Carcione, Dimaggio, Conti et al, 2010;Semerari, Carcione, Dimaggio et al, 2007). A certain overlap exists between metacognition and mentalization, defined by Bateman and Fonagy (2004, p.21) as "the mental process by which an individual implicitly and explicitly interprets the actions of himself or herself and others as meaningful on the basis of intentional mental states such as personal desires, needs, feelings, beliefs, and reasons".…”

Section: Metacognition: Definitions and Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metacognition as a predictor of change in the treatment for borderline personality disorder: A preliminary pilot study.

Maillard¹,

Dimaggio²,

Roten³

et al. 2017

Journal of Psychotherapy Integration

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is evidence that a key feature in borderline personality disorder (BPD) is the difficulty to reflect on one's own as well as on other people's state of mind. So far, no study has examined the link between metacognition and symptom change presented by BPD patients across treatment. This preliminary pilot study represents a first step in describing impairments in different dimensions of metacognition and their connection with the symptoms presented by a N ϭ 10 BPD sample. The transcripts from the first and the penultimate session of a 10-session version of Good Psychiatric Management were analyzed. The global score and the 3 subscales of the Metacognition Assessment Scale-Revised were used to assess metacognitive abilities: Understanding of one's own mind, Understanding of other's mind, and Mastery. Symptoms were assessed with the Outcome Questionnaire-45.2. Results show a general low level of metacognition. Therapy sessions with BPD patients seem to be characterized by impairments in metacognition, notably in the reflection on other's states of mind and in the use of this information to solve conflicts and problems. Moreover, sessions highlighting a higher level of the Understanding of other's mind at the onset of treatment were linked with better outcome compared to sessions showing poorer metacognitive abilities in this area. Implications for an integrated treatment for BPD and future research are discussed.

show abstract

“…People with histrionic personality disorder often lack the ability to regulate emotions [61,62], have superficial feelings and like to think about concrete things rather than abstract ideas [63]. The externally oriented thinking pattern itself indicates a tendency to focus on concrete details of external rather than internal experiences [64,65].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alexithymia and Personality Disorder Functioning Styles in Paranoid Schizophrenia

Li²,

Liu³

et al. 2011

Psychopathology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives: Personality disorder functioning styles might contribute to the inconclusive findings about alexithymic features in schizophrenia. We therefore studied the relationship between alexithymia and personality styles in paranoid schizophrenia. Methods: We administered the Chinese versions of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Parker Personality Measure (PERM), the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale as well as the Hamilton Anxiety and Depression Scales to 60 paranoid schizophrenia patients and 60 healthy control subjects. Results: Patients scored significantly higher on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, TAS ‘difficulty identifying feelings’ and ‘difficulty describing feelings’, Hamilton Depression Scale and most PERM scales. In healthy subjects, difficulty identifying feelings predicted the PERM ‘dependent’ style, and the Hamilton Anxiety Scale predicted difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings. In patients, difficulty identifying feelings nonspecifically predicted all the PERM scales; by contrast, the PERM ‘antisocial’ style predicted difficulty identifying feelings, the ‘avoidant’ style predicted difficulty describing feelings, and the ‘histrionic’ and ‘paranoid (–)’ styles predicted ‘externally oriented thinking’. Conclusions: Personality disorder functioning styles – instead of anxiety, depression, psychotic symptoms or disease duration – were specifically associated with alexithymia scales in our patients, which sheds light on a cognitive-personological substrate in paranoid schizophrenia on the one hand, and calls for a longitudinal design to discover how premorbid or postacute residual personality styles contribute to the sluggish disorder on the other.

show abstract

Understanding minds: Different functions and different disorders? The contribution of psychotherapy research

Abstract: Shahar, G. (2013). An integrative psychotherapist's account of his focus when treating self-critical patients.

Cited by 145 publications

References 48 publications

Alexithymia and Irony Comprehension and their Relations with Depression, Anxiety, General Symptomatology and Personality Disorders: A Comparison Between Clinical and Non-Clinical Participants

Alexithymia and Irony Comprehension and their Relations with Depression, Anxiety, General Symptomatology and Personality Disorders: A Comparison Between Clinical and Non-Clinical Participants

Metacognition as a predictor of change in the treatment for borderline personality disorder: A preliminary pilot study.

Alexithymia and Personality Disorder Functioning Styles in Paranoid Schizophrenia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About