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The internal representations of objects are affective-ideational dynamic parts of the personality which have existence in both the conscious and unconscious. In viewing them as primarily affective states nothing is taken away from the importance of the ideational verbal view of them, but it identifies this latter as being primarily a descriptive and potentially therapeutic communicative device. Verbalization is necessarily used, but the goal is not the eliciting of a conceptual view alone, but of hopefully coming to some consensus with the patient and of modifying his affectional state through clarification of and separation from the fixation to his archaic object representations. The mature state includes a significant capacity to establish current more realistic object representations in the context of prior experiences in living, but not dominated by them. In addition to the commonly accepted role of the affects as discharge processes, with no necessary relationship to objects, affects carry out a series of object-related functions. These include their role as motivators or inhibitors of behaviour, as communicative devices, and as means of eliciting or inhibiting behavioural responses in others.
The concept of 'sentiments' offers a means of clarifying and stating the intimate bond between affect, object, and behavioural pattern. When envisioned in the context of the already rich psycho-analytic metapsychology, it fills a gap in our attempts to define complex psychic patterns.