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Socarides has brought together an anthology of psychoanalytic papers dealing with affects. The works of Freud and Abraham in this area have been omitted on the grounds that they are readily accessible and the reader is presumably familiar with them. The psychoanalytic reader will also be familiar with many of the papers in this volume, and it is pleasant to review old classics and to be reminded of great contributors, some unfortunately now departed. The reprinted papers are introduced by some evaluative remarks by the editor.
The variety of topics herein brought together is rather surprising, and includes material that sometimes seems far removed from the basic instincts of eros and thanatos. Papers on ingratitude (Bergler), boredom (Greenson), pouting, smugness (Arlow), bitterness, sarcasm, vengeance (Socarides), gloating, nostalgia, all widen the field of study of affects. Apart from affects as discrete phenomena, their appearance in chronic form is discussed as contributing to character traits, mood states, and symptoms.
Many useful purposes are served by bringing together this collection of papers on affective states. Every practising psychoanalyst will find in it material of daily value, which will remind him of the wide panoply of emotional displays. The book constitutes almost a review course in psychoanalysis, and should be included in psychoanalytic reading curricula. It can be read with pleasure and benefit.