Peter Fonagy, PhD, FMedSci, FBA, FAcSS, OBE, is Professor of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Developmental Science and Head of the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at UCL; Chief Executive of the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, London; Consultant to the Child and Family Program at the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston; and holds visiting professorships at Yale and Harvard Medical Schools. His clinical and research interests centre on issues of early attachment relationships, social cognition, borderline personality disorder and violence. A major focus of his contribution has been an innovative research-based psychodynamic therapeutic approach, mentalizationbased treatment, which was developed in collaboration with a number of clinical sites in the UK and USA. He has published over 550 scientific papers and 250 chapters, and has authored or coauthored 19 books.