Affect and the fundamental nature of neurosis
Logic and reality.
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22923735 |
|---|---|
| Authors | KENNETH S ISAACS (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1990 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 259-284 |
| Publication date | 1990-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychoanalytic Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0736-9735 • E-ISSN: 1939-1331 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037//0736-9735.7.2.259 |
| OpenAlex | W2156233058 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 8 |
Considering new concepts of affect and affect process, clarifying distinctions among past concepts, and noticing participation of affect dynamics in health and illness suggests an alternative theory of symptom and neurosis. Personality the ory based on transient affect has more credibility and has clinical advantage over personality theory based on concepts of enduring affect. I discuss the contrast between the logic and reality of past and new theory, and the inferential processes used. New concepts of affect phobia, affect potentiation, affect storm, affect function, affect process, storm structure, conscious affect, and unconscious affect are presented. The new theory calls for consideration of independent simul taneity rather than sequentiality of affect and cognition, and reconsideration of the place of anxiety in psychology. The theory implies the use of different treatment paradigms for each category of disorder. In preface, the theory of emotion that is presented here complicates theory of symptom and neurosis, simplifies treatment, and makes cure possible. The theory describes a basis for preventing illness and obviating psychotherapy for several psychological disorders. I describe: some discoveries about the funda mental nature of psychological disorders as a starting point for subsequent description of psychotherape utic approaches. The complexity of the theory resides in an interweaving of many ideas about emotion and emotion process. Some of these ideas are contrary to long-held beliefs about emotion and emo tion process which form the basis of previous theories of emotion, neurosis, and therapy. I start with the basic premise that affect is transient, and that it exists only momentarily regardless of how often and how rapidly it may be repeated. The theoretical implications of affect as nonstorable make the world of emotion and the world of psychological process very different from current commonly held views.
Affect (linguistics) · Affect theory · Cognitive psychology · Epistemology · Feeling · Neurosis · Personality · Premise · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Psychotherapist · Unconscious mind · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Mental Health Research Topics · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |