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What is the aim of psychoanalysis? It is, broadly speaking, the same as the aim of life when that aim encourages and facilitates a commitment to life. This means to grasp the human condition, to be able to give and receive love, to develop the powers of reason, to acknowledge what is alive as against its illusory representations, and to tolerate uncertainty and insecurity. The goal of the therapeutic task is to meet these challenges. It is imperative also that the therapist note, explore and define those psychobiological trends which oppose and defeat the processes fostering the engagement of life productively.
In this paper I address myself to what in my clinical experience I regard as a specific triad of underlying affectively charged, interpersonal themes representative of disordered affect. Disordered affect is observed in varying intensity or degree in all individuals who struggle unsuccessfully to enter life productively, but it appears to stand out with special clarity in the obsessional character.
Before formulating my hypothesis concerning the roles of symbiosis, narcissism and necrophilia in respect to the nature of disordered affect, I will first define what I mean by “disordered affect.”
Disordered affect, as I use the term in this presentation, is a holistic concept; i.e., all affective expressions of relatedness to the self and to others are inclined away from aliveness and adventure, coupled with an exaggerated inability to tolerate uncertainty or healthy independence. The affective investment in life experience is miserly. The sense of joy lacks conviction, but sadness is not striking. The curiously consistent lack of lustre