Why we call them positive and negative affects

• Introducing Shame Language to Clients by Brett Schur - Havertown, PA - bschur@msn.com, 3/12/96
  • A heuristic comment by blynch, 3/20/98
    
    

Many authors have written of "rapturous shame," of the pleasure experienced when raging, and of the relief obtained when giving off the keening wail of anguish. One might therefore think that it makes no sense to label two affects positive, surprise-startle too brief to have a flavor, and the remaining six affects decidedly negative. Yet the reason is very simple and clear. We are "wired" to want to maintain and increase our experience of the positive affects, and similarly "wired" to want to halt the negative affects. The positive affects are rewarding in and of themselves, while the negative affects are punishing in and of themselves. This is the only reason the affects are divided into two categories.

• (No title) by Rclymer@erols.com, 6/9/98
  • analogues of affect by Don Nathanson, 6/11/98
• Positive and Negative: a Rose by Any Other Name by Charles G. Yopst, 6/16/98
  • affect vs. script by Don Nathanson, 6/19/98
    • Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall by Charles G. Yopst, 6/22/98
    • Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall by Charles G. Yopst, 6/22/98
      • Where affect fits in psychotherapy by Don Nathanson, 6/25/98
        • Thank You: To Strike a Pose by Chuck Yopst, 6/25/98
    • Shame necessary for negative affect? by (No author), 9/22/98
      • The independence of affective reactions by Don Nathanson, 9/23/98
      • The independence of affective reactions by Don Nathanson, 9/23/98