An Intersubjective Mentalization-Based Primer: Empathy as Competence

This book explores how Affect Resonance Training (ART), as developed by the Viennese psychotherapist Johann Steinberger, offers students and trainees in psychosocial professions the opportunity to develop competence in empathy, allowing them to better understand themselves and others.

Based on concepts of empathy, resonance and mentalization, this innovative mode of teaching offers effective tools and training for empathetic understanding. This book presents clear instructions for its application in the classroom, summarizing several years of intensive institutional practice. The book also outlines the program’s rich theoretical background and documents its empirical effectiveness.

With clear instruction on the use of ART and clinical insights on how increased empathy is effective in therapeutic settings, this book is essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and others across the psychosocial professions.

Dr. Johann Steinberger is a Founding Faculty Member of the academy for Affect Resonance Therapy (A.R.T.) Vienna, Austria, teaches, consults, and offers study groups for health care workers (nursing stuff, psychotherapists, psychologists, teachers, pedagogues and medical professionals). He works in private practice and at the Forensic Outpatient Clinic Vienna, Austria.