Looking for the impact of awareness and knowlegde of explicit mentalizing on vocational students
Abstract
This research sought to examine the impact of awareness and knowledge of explicit mentalizing on vocational students in the Netherlands. While mastering the topic of mentalizing myself, a visualisation of the topic emerged. From a simple graphic, a “Stairway to Mentalizing” arose.
A significant amount of research has already been done on mentalizing in a clinical setting. The aim of this study is to take it into a non-clinical setting. The key question is: What will be the effect of awareness and knowledge of explicit mentalizing on young vocational students?
In an effort to examine that question, I offered a guest lecture to a group of 17-20 year olds at a vocational school in The Netherlands, where I introduced the concept of mentalizing and tested my stairway visual. To get a deeper understanding of what they had gained from my lecturer, I held one-on-one interviews with each of the students.
The students (17–20 years old) easily understood the concept of explicit mentalizing. However, they also showed ambivalence regarding mentalizing and non-mentalizing in subsequent statements.
The themes that emerged included splitting and projection; “interesting but, not for me”, not- in-control situations of misunderstanding, and ambivalence toward mentalizing.
Keywords: mentalizing, Stairway to Mentalizing, reflection, empathy, inner theatre, leadership, vocational students, self-reflection, self-awareness, CCRT, self as context, impulse control, epistemic trust
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