CONCEPT
Reflective Function
Peter Fonagy's name for the capacity to think about one's own mental states and those of others — the metacognitive achievement that earned security requires, and the specifically human competence that survives, undiminished, every expansion of AI capability.
Reflective function — sometimes called mentalization — is the capacity to perceive and interpret human behavior in terms of mental states: beliefs, desires, feelings, intentions. Peter Fonagy and Mary Target developed the concept in the 1990s to name the specific cognitive-emotional competence that distinguishes secure from insecure attachment in adults. The securely attached adult can observe her own emotional responses without being overwhelmed by them; can hold the perspective of another person without losing her own; can reflect on relational patterns without enacting them compulsively. Reflective function is not a trait one is born with but a capacity developed through relationships in which one's mental states were themselves noticed and responded to. In the AI moment, reflective function is both the precondition for adapting well and the capacity AI cannot simulate — and its deliberate cultivation may be the most important educational task of the coming decade.
In The You On AI Field Guide
Fonagy's work emerged