In reviewing theoretical and empirical contributions from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology, we begin to chart several converging themes and pose two fundamental questions: (1) How does adolescent development influence affective experience and expression; and (2) Are there affective currents, unique in their intensity and configuration, that influence adolescent development? The first question leads to a detailed consideration of adolescent ego development; the second question touches upon the impact on adolescence of earlier developmental periods, such as infancy, the influence of the emergent biological events of puberty, and the organizing function of adolescent affects and moods. In the concluding sections we discuss some implications for clinical work.