Existential Functions of Mentalization in Asian Civilizations

Abstract

The construct “mentalization” in our Western psychological knowledge and more specifically in clinical work appeared several decades ago. The focus of the Western understanding and research of the construct and of mentalization-based therapy is put on the psychopathological dimensions of the process of mentalization. This article presents a brief analysis of the existential functions of mentalization in the thousand of years old Asian philosophical-psychological systems in an attempt to highlight some important implications for our Western views. The analysis is based on the paradigm of critical psychology as a concretization of the principles of Immanuel Kant‘s critical philosophy in the field of psychological knowledge.