According to Stein, an updated and clinically-relevant affect theory is conspicuously absent in the field of psychoanalysis. This book represents the first attempt to collate and clarify psychoanalytic theories on affect as they relate to the clinical process. Stein outlines and analyzes the most important affect theories and empirical work presented in the last one hundred years. She exposes the rigidity of some automatically held notions about affects and draws on the newer ideas in the field to paint a large-scale picture of contemporary thought on the subject.