Someone with a
personality disorder has much more diffi culty. However, schema modes are never
completely distinct from each other, so there is the idea of the patient having discrete
parts. A schema mode is a state that is prominent at a certain moment. In the case
of a patient with a few maladaptive modes, one mode is prominent, but the other
modes remain in the background (see “ simultaneous chess playing in a pinball
machine, ” in Arntz and van Genderen, 2009 ).