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EMOTION—I USE THE TERM SYNONYMOUSLY with affect—is part of the fabric of psychoanalysis. Propositions about emotion saturate psychoanalytic writings, theoretical and technical. Yet psychoanalytic studies of the emotions remain fitful, largely unfocused. After 30 years, David Rapaport is still quoted: "We do not possess a systematic statement of the psychoanalytic theory of the affects"—this in spite of his powerful effort "to piece together the existing fragments of this theory" (1950).
Meanwhile, outside of psychoanalysis, a copious body of work has flourished, at times interpenetrating, at times running parallel, at times counter to psychoanalytic views. This literature encompases a wide variety of definitions, approaches, and data. Initially the results may appear bewildering: one suspects that not just psychoanalytic