Affect Imagery Consciousness (Volume I & 2)
by Silvan
Tomkins
First published 1962 (v.1)and 1963 (v.2)
Tomkins’ magnum opus begins in 1962 and continues over the
decades with several volumes. The focal character of affect in motivating is
set in contrast to the assumptions of behaviourism and psychoanalysis. Affect
as an amplifier of its trigger is a biological mechanism giving an animal
moving about in space information on the basis of which appropriate actions may
be taken. The human face as the primary site of affect is a two-way
communication system telling the individual about the world, and telling the
world about the individual. This is a radical view of the nature of human
motivation in which positive, negative and neutral affects are delineated. Much
attention is given to the way in which the young individual is inadvertently
socialized to manage these innate responses, and the various ways in which
later, as adults, they manifest the consequences of this socialization.