Bringing research findings to the clinic and back: Commentary on the special issue on mentalization in borderline personality disorder

The articles assembled in this special issue demonstrate the broadening acceptance that a failure of "mentalization" is central in borderline personality disorder (BPD). This idea has emerged from a number of places, from astute clinicians who recognized that individuals with BPD were often limited in their ability to recognize and describe their own emotions to empirical work on emotion recognition in BPD. These articles provide a compelling argument that mentalization, with its relatively distinct and testable cognitive components, is a fertile ground for translational research. They also suggest a pathway by which empirical studies can illuminate clinical understanding. To highlight this point, it is now the routine to explain the laboratory evidence for deficits in emotional interoception to patients with BPD. This has been useful in helping to explain the internal and nuanced nature of patients' difficulties (apparent in laboratory testing but not obvious in casual encounters. This translational discussion with patients maps very closely onto an approach the editors argue for in this special issue.