ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what has been achieved in the domain of affect theory. It discusses the main issues and points of agreement or contention among various affect theories. The question of unconscious affect is at a juncture of some basic problems in psychoanalytic theory, such as the nature of affect, feelings or emotions, the status of defense in relation to the topographical unconscious, and so on. New infant research has brought forward theories that seek to illuminate the genetic, adaptive, and communicational aspect of affects. In psychoanalysis it is explicitly or tacitly assumed that treatment revolves around the core of affect, that what is most critical and curative in analysis always involves affects. Both at the beginning and at the end of Sigmund Freud's thinking on affects, his psychodynamic explanations were embedded in biological terms. The chapter deals with new directions of thought and fresh paths taken concerning affects, which seem to be fruitful for the future.
