Carla Sharp, Peter Fonagy and Ian Goodyer

Developmental Science and Psychoanalysis Social Cognition and Developmental Psychopathology
 Edited by Sharp, C., Fonagy, P. & Goodyer, I. G.
Oxford: Oxford University Press (2008).


Social cognition refers to the capacity to think about others' thoughts, intentions, feelings, attitudes and perspectives and enables us to engage in the activities that humans value most, such as family, friendship, love, cooperation, play, and community. These processes form such an essential and natural part of our functioning as human beings that it is easy to assume that all humans possess the capacity in equal measure. However, it has been shown by research over the last 20 years that children with a wide variety of psychiatric disorders have problems in social cognition. For instance, children with autism have clear deficits in thinking what others might be thinking. In contrast, children with psychopathic traits are very good at reading the minds of others, but may use this knowledge to manipulate or mistreat individuals.

This volume brings together for the first time leaders at the intersection of two academic fields: developmental psychopathology (which deals with child psychiatric disorders) and social cognition. By bringing together the two fields in this unique way, readers not only learn much about important disease mechanisms in childhood disorder, but also gain a better understanding about the nature, origins and development of social cognition in general. It is a must-have for all students, researchers, and clinicians interested in both childhood psychiatric disorder and cognitive psychology.

'It is a stimulating book that provides state of the art summaries about what is known as well as what we need to know.'

 From the foreword by Judy Dunn