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In his preface, Spezzano states that “the central project of this book is to extract a theory of affect from the psychoanalytic literature … not a new theory but a new synthesis of existing theory.”
That he is restricting himself to clinical theory is revealed in the first chapter: “The measure of a psychoanalytic theory of affects is not how well it talks with the theories of neurophysiologists or child development researchers but how useful it is to us both in our efforts to talk with patients and with each other about the clinical situation and in our efforts to extrapolate from that situation a coherent and meaningful theory of human experience.”
Spezzano traces the evolution of affect theory from Freud to Bibring and Klein with a passing nod to Kernberg. Freud elaborated three theories of affect. First he explained affect as a quota of drive energy that has become detached from an idea and is now felt passively. If the quota of energy remains attached to the idea, it leads to a natural urge to act.
In his second theory , Freud treated affect as a safety valve for the discharge of instinctual energy. If the affect cannot attach itself to a real person, it might attach itself to a fantasy, in order to limit the feeling of helplessness consequent upon the object's absence.
Freud made a fundamental conceptual change in his third theory of affect . The ego no longer has to experience the affect passively, but can gain control of it, using affect as a signal from the id
Abraham's contribution to affect theory was his understanding of the importance of self-sufficiency and the sense of well-being.
Klein added an “entire new constellation of powerful affects.. into the analytic vocabulary: oral rage, paranoid terror, depressive anxiety, gratitude and omnipotence.” She also elaborated upon the importance of concern and the wish for reparation, the paranoid and depressive positions, and the universality of envy.