Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To develop mentally; cultivate the mind or in tellect of; excite to mental activity.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To make mental in nature, rather than physical
  • verb psychology To understand the behavior of others as a product of their mental state

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

mental +‎ -ize

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Examples

  • To be agreeable, you have to be able to "mentalize" (read the feelings of others, which autistic people have trouble doing and empathize (that is, care about others' feelings, given that you can read them.

    Grasping the Nettle of Personality, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • To be agreeable, you have to be able to "mentalize" (read the feelings of others, which autistic people have trouble doing) and empathize (that is, care about others 'feelings, given that you can read them.

    Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • Love also shuts down the centers necessary to mentalize or sustain a theory of mind.

    Sad Brain, Happy Brain 2008

  • For brevity's sake we can refer to such activities as mentalizing, and we can ask about the cognitive mechanisms which underpin our capacity to mentalize.

    Folk Psychology as a Theory Ravenscroft, Ian 2004

  • Internalist theory theorists of both the learned and nativist varieties must account for the observed pattern of acquisition of the capacity to mentalize (Wellman 1990 is an outstanding introduction to this area).

    Folk Psychology as a Theory Ravenscroft, Ian 2004

  • Developmental psychologists have developed tests for young children's capacity to mentalize.

    Folk Psychology as a Theory Ravenscroft, Ian 2004

  • In a similar way, some internalist theory theorists argue that our capacity to mentalize is a product of natural selection.

    Folk Psychology as a Theory Ravenscroft, Ian 2004

  • Don't analyze or mentalize any of it; just say "I forgive myself for judging myself" until you feel calmer or the judgments dissipate.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Maddisen K. Krown 2011

  • I thought he was of the lower tier of comic strip animal companions, ones that never vocalize (or mentalize) actual thoughts.

    Baltiblogs 2010

  • Dunbar speculates that a change in our ability to mentalize - sometimes also referred to as Theory of Mind - could be the new cognitive function to have facilitated this improved capacity for social communication.

    BRAINETHICS Mario VELUCCHI 2009

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