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= D.: Affektbetrag.–Es.: cuota or suma de afecto.–Fr.: quantum d'affect.–I.: importo or somma d'affetto.–P.: quota or soma de afeto.
A quantitative factor postulated as the substratum of the affect as this is experienced subjectively. The ‘’ is the element that remains invariable despite the various modifications which the * undergoes–*, detachment of the * and qualitative transformations.
The term ‘’ is one of a number that Freud uses in framing his * hypothesis. This same underlying quantitative factor is given various names, such as ‘’, ‘instinctual force’, ‘’ of the instinct or, when the sexual instinct alone is under consideration, ‘’. This particular term is most often employed by Freud when he is dealing with the fate of the affect and its autonomy vis-à-vis the idea: ‘… in mental functions something is to be distinguished–a quota of affect or –which possesses all the characteristics of a quantity (though we have no means of measuring it), which is capable of increase, diminution, displacement and discharge, and which is spread over the memory-traces of ideas somewhat as an electric charge is spread over the surface of a body’ 1.
As Jones points out, ‘the idea of the affect being independent and detachable differentiated it sharply from the old conception of an “affective tone”’ (2, α). The concept of the quota of affect is metapsychological rather than descriptive: ‘It corresponds to the instinct in so far as the latter has become detached from the idea and finds expression, proportionate to its quantity, in processes which are sensed as ’ 3. It is possible, however, to find examples of a looser usage of the two terms ‘’ and ‘’ where the contrast between them–which corresponds, schematically, to that between quality and quantity–becomes blurred.
(α) It is worth noting, however, that in his article written in French, ‘Some Points for a Comparative Study of Hysterical and Motor Paralyses’ (1893c) Freud chose to render ‘Affektbetrag’ by ‘valeur af