Moving ahead: integrating influences of affective processes for development and for psychoanalysis

The author argues that psychoanalytic clinical thinking has evolved towards an organisational model of affect and that multidisciplinary research broadens this thinking. Integrative influences of affective processes have been given little attention in psychoanalytic theory. Such influences are reviewed using examples from research in early development. Affective processes are shown to provide integrative influences across systems in an individual's development, facilitating developmental change, as well as developmental continuity. In a related vein, affective processes provide incentives for the development of both individuality and connectedness with others. The notion of an 'affective core of self' is updated and the important psychoanalytic idea of emotion schemas of self in relation to others is reviewed. Integrating influences of affective processes in psychoanalysis operate mainly non-consciously and are in need of further study.