Sigmund FreudThinkers

An Affect is a composite phenomenon. It is not just a physical reaction, but is closely connected with ideas, which in turn are closely connected with bodily reactions, affects, ands sensations.

An Affect is a so-called 'unconscious emotion' (such as feelings of guilt) which stand in 'strangulated' opposition to 'idea', hence the need for verbalization.

Affect is not a representational sign (because affects are never repressed)... rather, it is a somatic conversion that continually shifts the ground of ( psychic) interpretation.

Affect is opposed to idea. The affective is opposed to the intellectual.

An Affect is synonymous with feeling, which is the qualitative expression of a quantitative energy.

Aggression is a biologically rooted instinctive urge that promotes preservation of the self. If not expressed, aggressive energy accumulates and exerts increasing pressure on the organism for satisfaction.

Aggression is a primary drive (rather than the outcome of conflicting drives) that is not grounded in goal attainment. Rather its sole purpose is to release tension by means of a kind of breaking-up or a kind of destruction.

Aggression is accompanied by intense erotic pleasure... it breaks down the boundaries between self and other, giving a voice to the need to possess and control.

Aggression is an expression of a basic state or basic need within the individual, rather than a response to external demands.

Aggression is an innate tendency and it constitutes the powerful obstacle to culture.

Aggression is an instinct, in contrast to hate and love which are not.

Aggression is an intensification of love, but not a mere continuation or extension of it. Aggression, together with love, form a complex in which they simultaneously incite and ruin one another.

Aggression is an original, self-subsisting instinctual disposition in man constituting his greatest impediment to civilization.

Aggression is at the root of humanity and while it cannot be suppressed, what we may try is to direct it into a channel other than that of warfare.

Aggression is instinctive, the result of the unconscious impulses emitted by the id.

Aggression is primarily self-aggression, not directed outwards.

Aggression is the externalization of a primary, innate suicidal or death instinct.