The Schemes: The Submerged Part Of The Iceberg

Schemes are employed in many areas of study. Generally, a schema is a structure, a framework or a profile. In psychology, this concept has a particularly rich history, especially for the evolutionary area.

A schema would be a model given to reality or experience to help individuals explain it, to mediate their perception and to orient their responses.

Starting from the Schema Therapy developed by Jeffrey E. Young, this term refers to various childhood experiences that we could classify as toxic. It is used to define a series of patterns that the author has called “early maladaptive patterns”.

We will therefore have a broad and generalized pattern or theme made up of memories, emotions, cognitions and bodily sensations. The scheme would be related to oneself and to the relationship with the surrounding environment. It would develop in childhood or adolescence and last for a lifetime. Furthermore, it would be highly dysfunctional for the person.

Early patterns are therefore counterproductive cognitive models that are adopted early and are repeated several times over a lifetime. In this sense, we can use the iceberg metaphor for the scheme in which there is a submerged and unconscious part hidden from view.

The pattern would be activated when an event similar to that experienced in childhood occurs. So when one of our patterns is activated, we feel an intense negative emotion such as grief over a loss, shame, fear or anger.

The origin of the schema

As children, they have emotional needs that need to be met. No one can deny that a child needs love, food or clothing, they are necessary for his survival. The five fundamental needs contemplated by the Schema Therapy are:

• The secure bond with others, especially with parents.
• Autonomy, competence and sense of identity.
• The freedom to express valid needs and emotions.
• Spontaneity and play.
• Real limits and self-control.

These would be universal needs that we all have to satisfy. The problem is that sometimes it is impossible for some children. Toxic childhood experiences are the main source of early maladaptive patterns.

Other influences, such as those from friends, school, neighborhood, or the culture the child grew up in, become more important as the child grows and can also influence the development of these patterns.

These influences, however, are not as powerful or intense as those experienced in childhood and which have to do with the family unit.

Patterns in adulthood

As we said earlier, patterns are formed in childhood due to unmet needs or emotional deficiencies that leave wounds. Those unhealed wounds continue to hurt even as the individual has grown and matured.

They belong to the submerged part of the iceberg and remain dormant with no apparent effects. However, when an event is familiar to us, the pattern takes shape and becomes active.

When we say that a pattern is activated, we are referring to the fact that our infantile part is set in motion to satisfy that unsatisfied need. The problem is that, from a rational point of view, the adult no longer needs what he wanted.

The goal, therefore, is to cure the child and break the mold. The adult must realize that the unmet needs of the past can no longer be satisfied and that he must accept this reality.

When the adult accepts that the past cannot be changed, he can begin to take actions to counter the pattern that traps him in childhood. One of the ways to do this is to use behavioral procedures.

In this case, a therapeutic goal could be to expose yourself to the meeting of potential partners and to risk a new “abandonment”. This “abandonment”, however, would not suppose an unmet need, as it did in childhood, since no adult needs another adult.

It is desirable that the adult begins to protect that child who had shortcomings. He has to love himself, take care of himself and accept himself. The idea is to stop hurting the inner child and to help him overcome the gaps and wounds with the means available to an adult.