affect

nationality

American

Australian

occupation / innovator as

philosopher

feminist

political theorist

social theorist

innovator in the field of

philosophy

political theory

is a corrective of post-structuralism's over-emphatic insistence on language.

Affect has seemed a way to supplement post-structuralism's persuasive but perhaps over-emphatic insistence on the preeminence of language and/or discourse. (Note that this interest in the extra-discursive extends to post-structuralism's most prominent practitioners... consider, for example, Derrida's insistence that the readability of a tear or a cry is not the same as the readability of a text.[1] )' (NET review of Terresa Brennen' s The Transmission of Affect) '

is a physiological shift accompanying a judgement such that when I feel angry, I don't just feel angry, I feel the passage of anger through me.

by an affect, I mean the physiological shift accompanying a judgement. the notion that passions and affects are themeselves judgments is implicity in the frequent definition of affect as, to quote an example, 'any evaluative (positive or negative) orientation toward an object.' The idea that affects are judgments, or, as a new vernacular has it, attitudes (as in, 'lose the attitude') has less common currency than the notion of affects as surges of emotion or passion. But the evaluative or judgmental aspects of affects will be critical in distinguishing between these physiological phenomena and those deployed in feeling or discernment. In other words, feelings are not the same thing as affects. Putting it simply, when I feel angry, I feel the passage of anger through me. What i feel with and what I feel are distinct' (Brennen 2004:5)

is an energy (e.g. Envy, anger, aggressivity) whose origin is independent of the individual experiencing them.

Affects 'have an energetic dimension'. 'this is why they can enhance or deplete. they enhance when they are projected outward, when one is relieved of them... in popular parlance, this is called 'dumping.' 'My theory is an alternative to psychoanalytic theory or metapsychology in that it postulates an origin for affects that is independent of the individual experiencing them. These affects come from the other, but we deny them. Or they come from us, but we pretend (habitually) that they come from the other. Envy, anger, aggressive behavior-- these are the problems of the other. Overtolerance, overgenerosity-- these are our problems' (Brennen 13).

is not synonymous with a feeling. Feelings are thoughtful. They have found words. Affects are thoughtless, worldless, bodily. The physiological draw and repulsion of the body toward and away from its objects. Feelings, moods, and sentiments are subsets of affect.

affect is not feeling. Feelings, she says, offer a unified interpretation of particular sensory information: feelings are sensations that have found a match in words (Brennen 2004:5). Feelings are thus expressive in the fullest sense of the term... their function is one of discernment. Feelings are thoughtful, while affects are thoughtless. Ultimately, Brennan wants to release feeling from affect, so that sensation and word might become attuned' (NET same review)

is physiological. Feelings, moods, and sentiments are a subset. A 'feeling' is the sensation that, like an antenna, is able to register these stimuli.

feelings, moods, sentiments and emotions as subset of affect. 'feelings' refers to the sensations that register these stimuli (brennen)

Theresa BrennenThinkers

Theresa Brennen