Cognitive Psychodynamics offers an integration of cognitive science and psychodynamic psychology that provides a common language across disciplines while presenting an explicit theoretical basis for understanding the processes that bring about change. Written by Mardi J. Horowitz, this work provides an analysis of both conscious and unconscious mental processes and the development of identity and relationships.

The book is organized around three theoretical constructs: states of mind; defensive control processes used to regulate emotion; and person schemas, the cognitive maps that organize patterns of relationships and identity. Initial chapters present the information processing of emotional themes. The book then addresses how people form a meaningful identity during development and how they deal with the conflict between self-striving and responsibility to others.