Affect and Emotion: A Brief Psychoanalytic Tour

Why are emotions so crucial to living our best lives? How do psychoanalytic concepts help us understand them? What are the key things we need to know about feelings? And what is the difference between emotions, affects, and feelings?

Emotions lie at the core of psychotherapy, relationships, and life itself. In this updated edition, Music explores how emotional decision-making often operates unconsciously, how early experiences shape later attachment relationships, and how the body serves as the seat of emotions.

Using examples from both therapy and everyday life, this book examines the impact of trauma and neglect on emotional development, the reasons some people seem to feel too much while others feel too little, and the negative consequences of repressing, disowning, or projecting our emotions.

This edition, originally published by the Freud Museum, demonstrates how psychoanalytic insights illuminate the heart of our emotional and affective lives. The central message is that a deep understanding of emotions helps us navigate a wider range of experiences, both positive and negative, and enhances our ability to live fuller, richer lives.