Simulating the mind and applications – a theory-based chance for understanding psychic transformations in somatic symptom disorders

Figure 1 The emergence of mentalized affectivity. Mutual interactions between caregiver and child are shown as a process where the caregiver infers the inner thoughts and affective states through signals expressed by the child (and the contextual information and knowledge available). At first, the child notices a somatic experience and expresses it nonverbally to the caregiver as a signal. Then, the caregiver metabolises this signal (resonance, reflection, reaction) and communicates an expression of this metabolized affect to the child (mirroring display). In the next step, the child internalises this reaction of the caregiver in response to its own experience as a picture/idea of the primal state. In such a way a transformation from a somatic experience to an integration of the child’s inner state is acquired via symbolisation in repeated social interaction.