Schematic processing and emotional change: Implications for treatment

Abstract

This paper lays out a model of mental schemes and schematic processes and uses it to offer an alternative "schematic synthesis" model of psychological change—a model that is at variance with most conventional theories. We argue that a theory of the internal workings of the mind, which provides a theoretical explanation of how clients' in-session experiences and performances are constructed, moment-by-moment, would enhance therapists' effectiveness and provide a guide for intervention. In this paper we describe how Pascual Leone's Theory of Constructive Operators (TCO) (Pascual-Leone & Johnson, 2021) can be applied to understand therapeutic change. TCO describes a mind that works by scheme activation, in combination with mental operators that act on schemes, to facilitate their synthesis. It offers a theoretical view of the internal workings of the mind that can causally explain how change occurs. This differs from standard accounts of mechanisms of change, such as learning or insight, which predominantly provide descriptions of how change occurs from an external vantage point. We use the TCO model to explain how emotional change takes place in therapy by a developmental process of transformation by “synthesis” of schemes, rather than by learning or insight. We illustrate application of the model in the context of a therapy transcript.