Fostering Mentalizing Communities

To perceive and interpret human behavior in terms of intentional mental states, such as feeling, beliefs, purposes, needs, desires, and reason, is what we call “mentalizing.” Boggi Cavallo’s assumption could lead to the hypothesis that beliefs, created and maintained by the individual along the life span, can affect the core of self-perception and also play a part in determining behaviors and social interactions. From this crucial point of view, the effort to deepen understanding of the construction of representations, knowledge and beliefs, and the environment in which they develop could proceed hand-in-hand with the ongoing commitment to promote mentalizing abilities in communities.