Psychological Mindedness: A Contemporary Understanding was first published in 1997. At the time, psychodynamically-oriented clinicians had long emphasized the relevance of psychological mindedness to effective therapy. But what does the term mean? That had been a difficult question to answer. There had been a variety of definitions and measures not only of psychological mindedness but of related constructs such as alexithymia, private self-consciousness, self-focused attention, social perspective taking, and personal intelligence.

Over the previous decade, McCallum and Piper had developed their own definition and measure of psychological mindedness, and examined the extent to which it predicted patient response to psychodynamic psychotherapy. This book is both a collection of both their own efforts and those of their fellow researchers in this broad field. It attempted to increase mental health practitioners' understanding of psychological mindedness and its importance to patient assessment and treatment at the time. It also provides practical methods for assessing psychological mindedness and addresses its relevance to interpersonal contexts outside the mental health field.

This book was intended to facilitate clinicians' efforts to select the most appropriate patients for their particular approaches to therapy, which would in turn reduce client dropout rates and maximize therapeutic processes and outcomes.