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Affects are discussed from a psychoanalytic perspective; developmental, cultural, and genetic influences on affective expression and experience are also noted. Basic human affects evolve from innate potentials, species-specific with individual and cultural dimensions, increasing in complexity, and serving multiple functions in the course of development. The theory of psychoanalytic technique has always included consideration of affects, beginning with Freud's use of the cathartic method and later the relationship of affect to structural theory and defense. Communication of affect within the two-way field of the analytic process as well as particular problems in the analysis of patients who have specific difficulty in recognition, experience, communication, and regulation of affect are discussed. Unconscious trauma, elaborated in fantasy, may leave a permanent imprint on mood. The centrality of affects in psychoanalytic work is stressed. Affects are analyzed in the context of conflict, including the sgnificance of defense against affect, affect as defense, and progressive as well as regressive modification. Affective disorders are multiply determined and cannot be isolated from intrapsychic conflict.