MBT was developed and manualised by Peter Fonagy and Anthony Bateman, designed for individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD).
The object of treatment is that patients with BPD increase their mentalization capacity, which should improve affect regulation, thereby reducing suicidality and self-harm, as well as strengthening interpersonal relationships.
More recently, a range of mentalization-based treatments, using the "mentalizing stance" defined in MBT but directed at children (MBT-C), families (MBT-F)[1] and adolescents (MBT-A), and for chaotic multi-problem youth, AMBIT (adaptive mentalization-based integrative treatment) has been under development by groups mainly gravitating around the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families.
[2] Moreover, the MBT model has been used in treating patients with eating disorders (MBT-ED) [3] The treatment should be distinguished from and has no connection with mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) therapy developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
Other core aspects of treatment include a stance of curiosity, partnership with the patient rather than an 'expert' type role, monitoring and regulating emotional arousal, and identifying the affect focus.
Fonagy and Bateman have recently proposed that MBT (and other evidence-based therapies) works by providing ostensive cues that stimulate epistemic trust.