Affects and the ego

Abstract

The author tracks the variable meanings of diverse affects. He refers to not having found an explanation that would clarify what affects are. According to the author psychic energy does not exist. The psyche is a virtual space and world. He agrees with Kernberg O. in that the sum of pleasant and unpleasant experiences, each together form two parallel series that organize and consolidate themselves in the form of drives. From some of his texts, he infers that Freud himself believed that animals have affects given that they can experience anguish. Throughout the evolution of animals, neurological centers grow and become more complex and in man, they also created the psyche. To the extent that the brain's complexity increased, in the interval between a stimulus and its response there may be variations in the space of time, which is practically null in the reflex arc. Or a period of time variably long so that during that period of time various new functions may be carried out such as discrimination, evaluation, integration, synthesis, decision, coordination, and execution of the response; functions that in humans are ascribed to the ego. For it to fulfill its functions, an ever greater temporal separation was necessary, with the risk of losing the purpose of the response. The author posits that: affect fulfills the function of maintaining temporal validity, becoming memory, of the experiential meaning and repercussion of the stimulus. This continuous memory allows for a temporal space to be established between the stimulus and its response for the fulfillment of the functions of discrimination, evaluation, synthesis, decision, coordination, execution, and control of the response, which are functions of the ego component.