[A mentalization-based perspective on childhood autism treatment]

Abstract

Mentalization is a process by which a subject makes sense of both his own mental representations and of those around him. Disturbances in the mentalization process are found in several psychiatric disorders, notably borderline personality disorders for which mentalization-based treatments (MBT) have been developed and evaluated. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) display a theory of mind impairments, which corresponds to disturbances in the mentalization process. Although no MBT protocol for patients with ASD has been described in the literature, such treatment appears promising to improve theory of mind and functional outcome of these children. In this paper, we propose to discuss the theoretical ground of MBT therapeutic effect in children with ASD without intellectual disabilities and to describe a clinical protocol to test this perspective.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Mentalisation; Mentalization; Mentalization-based treatment; Protocole d’étude clinique; Study protocol; Theory of mind; Théorie de l’esprit; Thérapies basées sur la mentalisation; Troubles du spectre autistique.