Weiss, Sampson, and the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group (formerly the Mount Zion Psychotherapy Research Group, 1986) asserted the central role of the patient's unconscious plan in analytic treatment. The analyst listens, albeit unconsciously, to the patient with respect for the patient's capacity to spell out his or her goals, the blocks to achieving these goals, and what the analyst needs to do and avoid doing for these goals to be accomplished. The plan approach is based on a distinct theory of therapy and psychopathology conceived by Weiss and validated through research.

This article first summarizes the key ideas of this approach and then compares and contrasts it with other contemporary theories from the writings of Emde, Schafer, Stolorow, and Bowlby. After highlighting the theory's unique features, I discuss how this point of view offers potential solutions to chronic problems—theoretical, cultural, and clinical—that afflict psychoanalysis today.