Abstract
Psychoanalytic theory is fundamentally a cognitive theory—a series of attempts to understand the functioning of the human mind. The purpose of this paper is to review the various psychoanalytic models of the mind and to demonstrate how a contemporary psychoanalytic model of the mind, the representational model, derives from earlier psychoanalytic models, how it is congruent with many aspects of contemporary cognitive and developmental theory, and how it provides a theoretical basis for the systematic investigation of personality development, psychopathology, and the therapeutic process. Research using a representational psychoanalytic model is discussed. Open-ended descriptions of self and significant others (mother, father, and therapist) were evaluated using ratings scales derived from developmental cognitive and psychoanalytic theories. Aspects of these ratings were related significantly to independent assessments of the quality of interpersonal attachment and to the degree of therapeutic change in long-term, intensive, inpatient treatment of seriously disturbed, treatment-resistant patients. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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