Emotional schemas are unconscious predictive models formed by intense emotional experiences that guide our behavior. They contain memories and mental structures about problems and solutions, functioning like belief/prediction systems about how the world works.

Key features:

• Form from intense emotional experiences
• Changed through memory reconsolidation when encountering contradictory information
• Generate specific predictions about situations: They operate like an "if-then" program: "If X happens, then Y terrible outcome will occur, so I must do Z to prevent it."

highlighting the ways in which even their hurtful or harmful actions come from them trying their best to take care of themselves

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/i9xyZBS3qzA8nFXNQ/book-summary-unlocking-the-emotional-brain