The schema model: a proposed replacement paradigm for psychoanalysis

According to this model, the dynamic unconscious is a nonaccommodating schema consisting of the unmastered painful residues of childhood and subsequent experience assimilated to it. The assimilation of persons from current life into the roles originally created by important childhood figures accounts for repetition phenomena and transference. Advantages over the structural model include internal consistency, absence of highly abstract concepts, and the clear place given unconscious fantasy. The role of perception, badly handled by the structural model, is made clear. An illustrative case is described and the compatibility of the model with neuroscience and psychodynamic research findings is explored.