Human Feelings: Explorations in Affect Development and Meaning

by Ablon; Steven L.

• ISBN13: 9780881631449
• ISBN10: 0881631442
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-08-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Human Feelingsprovides a comprehensive overview of the role of emotions in human life. Growing out of the research and writing of members of the Harvard Affect Study Group, the volume brings to bear different disciplinary outlooks and different modes of inquiry on various aspects of human affective experience. The book opens with an section of "Theoretical Considerations" that includes an overview of affective development across the life cycle, an examination of affect and character, and an empirical analysis of gender differences in the expression of emotion. A series of clinical reports involving patients in different age groups comprises the next section, "Affect and the Life Cycle." Subsequent sections on "Trauma, Addiction, and Psychosomatics" and "Transformations of Affect" traverse the realms of neurobiology, addictive suffering, stress disorders, epistemology, creativity, and social organization. A final section, "New Directions," further extends the frontiers of inquiry into nonordinary states of consciousness and the vicissitudes of well-being. An integrative collection of multidisciplinary sweep and scholarly integrity, Human Feelingsis a readable source book that brings together rigorous theoretical and developmental studies, experientially vivid self-reporting, and a wealth of illustrative clinical material. An invaluable addition to the libraries of mental health professionals and developmental researchers, this volume will be illuminating for philosophers, social and political scientists, and lay readers as well.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Contributors
Introduction
Affective Development, Psychopathology, and Adaptation	p. 5
Affect and Character	p. 67
On Understanding Gender Differences in the Expression of Emotion	p. 87
The Therapeutic Action of Play and Affect in Child Analysis	p. 127
Affective Interactions in Families with Young Children	p. 145
Problems with Affect Tolerance in the Analysis of an Adolescent Girl	p. 161
Empathy, Virtuality, and the Birth of Complex Emotional States: Do We Find or Do We Create Feelings in the Other?	p. 181
Affect in the Elderly: Do Older People Feel Differently?	p. 203
Biological Considerations About Emotions, Trauma, Memory, and the Brain	p. 221
I Feel a Little Sad: The Application of Object Relations Theory to the Hypnotherapy of Posttraumatic Stress Disorders in Vietnam Veterans	p. 241
Affects and Addictive Suffering: A Clinical Perspective	p. 259
Stress and Emotion: Implications for Illness Development and Wellness	p. 281
Theory and Its Relation to Early Affective Experience	p. 305
Duke Ellington: The Creative Process and the Ability to Experience and Tolerate Affect	p. 317
The Passions of Nationalism and Beyond: Identity and Power in International Relations	p. 333
Nonordinary States of Consciousness and the Accessing of Feelings	p. 357
The Path of Meditation: Affective Development and Psychological Well-Being	p. 373
Index	p. 403
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