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The idea of mutual affect
Author(s) -
Erzar Tomaž,
Erzar Katarina K.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international journal of applied psychoanalytic studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.314
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1556-9187
pISSN - 1742-3341
DOI - 10.1002/aps.108
Subject(s) - unobservable , affect regulation , affect (linguistics) , autoregulation , psychoanalytic theory , psychopathology , psychology , distress , transgenerational epigenetics , psychotherapist , social psychology , cognitive psychology , epistemology , clinical psychology , medicine , attachment theory , communication , philosophy , pregnancy , genetics , biology , blood pressure , offspring , radiology
The article presents theoretical reasons and research in favor of the idea of mutual affect, describing psychopathological and therapeutic aspects of the affective autoregulation that takes place in intimate relationships. By “affective autoregulation” we refer to the processes of self‐regulation, mutual regulation, and transgenerational regulation of affects, in accordance with different therapeutic models and psychoanalytic theories that emphasize the crucial role of emotions and affects in reducing individual and relational symptomatology and distress. Methods for detecting and studying observable and unobservable properties of affect are presented and discussed through a survey of recent research in the attachment tradition. Some therapeutic implications of this idea, as elaborated and implemented at the Franciscan Family Institute in Ljubljana, are also presented. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.