Here the author presents a set of statements concerning “affect” prior to the rise of psychoanalysis. Difficulties faced by psychoanalysis in constructing a specifically psychoanalytical conception are discussed. Husserl´s phenomenological contribution to the study of affect is also discussed, as well as current neuroscientific-oriented conceptions of affect. The main ways that affect is conceived in psychoanalytical thought are also mentioned.
Affect; psychopathology; phenomenology; psychoanalytical concept of affect