Leslie Greenberg writes that an emotion scheme sets in motion an emotionally motivated mode of processing which occurs outside of awareness and influences conscious processing. The activation of a fear scheme motivates the search for threat – the conscious processing works in service o the affective goal of the scheme. In the case of fear, this becomes the search for safety. Emotion schemes can have a linguistic aspect but are often preverbal (Sensations, imagery, smell etc.). These schemes are oriented towards action to satisfy needs and goals.
Schemes are the basic story of lived experience held in neural networks. An example the Greenberg gives is a scheme of fear of failure is formed from having failed a mother’s expectations. This scheme might hold the visual image of the mother’s face, different physiological and sensory elements, as well as the action tendency to withdraw, and possibly (although not necessarily) the belief held in language that the self is going to fail. In order to be processed all of these elements must be brought into awareness.