The author feels that the study of affects has trailed behind the study of drives and the ego. He sees affects as composite structures which are qualitative entities containing ideational and drive elements, existing in both the conscious and the unconscious. He specifically attempts to deal with the affect of bitterness, both in its metapsychological and applied aspects. The bitter person feels resentful about pain which appears to be deliberately inflicted and unnecessary. The genesis of bitterness lies in the nursing phase and the first bitter taste comes from regurgitated bile. It may acquire pathological significance as a result of the simultaneous occurrence of traumatic fixations. Bitterness is a protest against object loss and a goad toward re-instatement of the lost object.