Intellect and Affect

• Responses to First Learning about Affect Theory by Jim Duffy a.k.a. J.C.D., 2/28/97
  • More on Initial Responses to Affect Theory by Vick Kelly, 3/1/97
    • Rock and a Hard Place by Ed Riemann LCSW, 3/3/97
      
      

I don't think we disagree here at all. However, I am not sure what you mean when you say "intellect is the conduit through which affect flows." Would you please expand on that a bit.

Certainly intellect (more specifically cognition) and affect work in tandem, but Tomkins's concept of the affect system as a separate system--separate from cognition, the drive system, and the pain system--is what works best for me.

Cognition is about information. Retreiving, analyzing, storing and doing whatever else it does with information. With the imprint of the affect system--for example, nothing enters consciousness unless it triggers an affect--information is given meaning. With affect, any information can have meaning; whereas, without affect, the information is not noticed.

In AIC Volume IV Tomkins states it thus: "Cognitions coassembled with affects become hot and urgent. Affects coassembled with cognitions become better informed and smarter." He is clear that the 2 must operate hand in hand to maximize the utility of both. To paraphrase Tomkins: Affect without cognition is blind; cognition without affect is weak.

• Cognition and Human Emotion by Ed Riemann, 3/8/97
  • Independence of affect and cognition by Don Nathanson, 3/8/97
    • Projection and Interpretation by Ed Riemann, 3/9/97
      • Read the book by Don Nathanson, 3/10/97
        • Dan by Ed Riemann, 3/11/97
        • Get On With Business by Bored, 5/17/97