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Bifocalism is in the eye of the beholder: Social learning as a developmental response to the accuracy of others' mentalizing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2022

Chloe Campbell
Affiliation:
Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London WC1E 7HB, UK c.campbell@ucl.ac.ukhttps://www.ucl.ac.uk/psychoanalysis/people/chloe-campbell
Peter Fonagy
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, UCL, London WC1H OAP, UK p.fonagy@ucl.ac.ukhttps://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/people/peter-fonagy

Abstract

This commentary argues the case for developmental psychopathology in understanding social learning. Informed by work on “epistemic disruption,” we have described difficulties with social learning associated with many forms of psychopathology. Epistemic disruption manifests in an inability to move between innovation and conformity, and arises from poor mentalizing, which generates difficulties in identifying social cues that trigger the correct stance.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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