Unconscious Plans

Patients test the therapist according to unconscious plans that provide a general direction. These plans are ways of achieving therapeutic goals by mastering the effects of trauma through overcoming the internal obstructions that interfere with the pursuit of goals. The plan tells the patient which beliefs to test first and which to defer testing until later. A plan is not fixed; rather, it is a tentative, flexible strategy for achieving one's goals. It is modified and revised as the therapy progresses. In fact, the patient will often mold his plan to the therapist's style, stance, or orientation.

	NEW! How Patients Work on Their Plans and Test Their Therapists in Psychotherapy, by George Silberschatz, Ph.D. (133 KB)
	A Critique of Certain Traditional Concepts in the Psychoanalytic Theory of Therapy, by Harold Sampson, Ph.D. (374 KB)
	A Description and Clinical Research Application of the Control-Mastery Theory, by Marshall Bush, Ph.D., and Suzanne M. Gasser, Ph.D. (658 KB)
	Assessing Students' Plans for College, by Robert Shilkret, Mount Holyoke College, and Ellen E. Nigrosh, Smith College (1.1 MB)
	Clinical Applications of Control-Mastery Theory, by Joseph Weiss (210 KB)
	Clinical Implications of Research on Brief Dynamic Psychotherapy I. Formulating the Patient's Problems and Goals, by John T. Curtis, Ph.D., and George Silberschatz, Ph.D., Mount Zion Hospital and Medical Center (633 KB)
	Changes in the Patient's Level of Insight in Brief Psychotherapy: Two Pilot Studies, by Lynn E. O'Connor, Susan Edelstein, and Jack W. Berry, San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group and Wright Institute (845 KB)
	Clinical Implications of Research on Brief Dynamic Psychotherapy II. How the Therapist Helps or Hinders Therapeutic Progress, by George Silberschatz, Ph.D., and John T. Curtis, Ph.D., Mount Zion Hospital and Medical Center (515 KB)
	How Does Psychotherapy Work? Findings of the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group, by Robert Shilkret, Ph.D., and Cynthia J. Shilkret, Ph.D. (1.4 MB)
	How Do Interpretations Influence the Process of Psychotherapy?, by George Silberschatz, Polly B. Fretter, and John T. Curtis, Mount Zion Hospital and Medical Center, San Francisco (600 KB)
	How Patients Coach Their Therapists in Psychotherapy, John Bugas and George Silberschatz, San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group (531 KB)
	How the Patient's Plan Relates to the Concept of Transference, by Polly B. Fretter, Mount Zion Medical Center, Wilma Bucci, Adelphi University, and Jessica Broitman, George Silberschatz, and John T. Curtis, Mount Zion Medical Center of U.C. San Francisco (827 KB)
	Individual Psychotherapy for Addicted Clients: An Application of Control Mastery Theory, by Lynn E. O'Connor, Ph.D., and Joseph Weiss, M.D. (776 KB)
	Patients' Unconscious Plans for Solving Their Problems, by Joseph Weiss, M.D., and Commentary by Paul L. Wachtel, Ph.D., and Annette DeMichele, J.D. (2.1 MB)
	The Analyst's Task: To Help the Patient carry Out His Plan, by Joseph Weiss, M.D. (738 KB)
	The Plan Formulation Method, by John T. Curtis, George Silberschatz, Harold Sampson, and Joseph Weiss, Mount Zion Medical Center of U.C. San Francisco (559 KB)
	The Significance of Turning Passive into Active in Control Mastery Theory, by Steven A. Foreman, M.D. (1 MB)
	The Structure of Psychotherapy: Control-Mastery Theory’s Diagnostic Plan Formulation, by Alan Rappoport, Ph.D. (48 KB)
	Unconscious Mental Functioning, by Joseph Weiss, M.D. (652 KB)
	Using Control Mastery Therapy to Treat Major Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, by Nnamdi Pole, University of Michigan, and Polly Bloomberg-Fretter, Berkeley, California (1 MB)