Affect

AFFECT/AFFECTION. Neither word denotes a personal feeling (sentiment in Deleuze and Guattari). L'affect (Spinoza's affectus) is an ability to affect and be affected. It is a prepersonal intensity corresponding to the passage from one experiential state of the body to another and implying an augmentation or diminution in that body's capacity to act. L'affection (Spinoza's affectio) is each such state considered as an encounter between the affected body and a second, affecting, body (with body taken in its broadest possible sense to include "mental" or ideal bodies).Affect is a complex and often contentious concept. So much so that one is likely to encounter nearly as many conceptions and uses of affect as there are scholars of affect. Seigworth and Gregg (2010), for instance, have identified at least eight “main orientations” toward affect (pp. 6–8). This complexity can sometimes be seen even within a single scholar’s understanding of affect. The 17th-century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), for instance, held a multifaceted view of affect that entailed two distinct, but related dimensions: affectus and affectio. Spinoza (1992) maintained that a “body can be affected in to encounter nearly as many conceptions and uses of affect as there are scholars of affect. Seigworth and Gregg (2010), for instance, have identified at least eight “main orientations” toward affect (pp. 6–8). This complexity can sometimes be seen even within a single scholar’s understanding of affect. The 17th-century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), for instance, held a multifaceted view of affect that entailed two distinct, but related dimensions: affectus and affectio. Spinoza (1992) maintained that a “body can be affected in many ways by which its power of activity is increased or decreased” (p. 103); affectus is his term for “a body’s continuous, intensive variation (as increase-diminution) in its capacity for acting” (Seigworth, 2011, p. 184).
-- Brian L. Ottresearchgate.net. 2017.
Category:Psychology
Category:Mental illness