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11 - Basic Affects and the Instinctual Emotional Systems of the Brain

The Primordial Sources of Sadness, Joy, and Seeking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Jaak Panksepp
Edited by
Antony S. R. Manstead ,
Nico Frijda  and
Agneta Fischer
Jaak Panksepp
Affiliation:
Bowling Green State University
Antony S. R. Manstead
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Nico Frijda
Affiliation:
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Agneta Fischer
Affiliation:
Universiteit van Amsterdam
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Summary

ABSTRACT

Primary-process affective processes emerge largely from subcortical action-perception brain systems that elaborate a variety of emotional-instinctual tendencies. This essay highlights how the nature of affect can be clarified by studying ancient brain operating systems that mediate separation distress, social play, and appetitive seeking in all mammals.

No knowledge would have been more valuable as a foundation for true psychological science than an approximate grasp of the common characteristics and possible distinctive features of the instincts. But in no region of psychology were we groping more in the dark.

– Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920/1959)

The question “What is the fundamental nature of affect?” is one of the most important and least studied psychological question in the life sciences. If we could understand the neuro-evolutionary nature of affect, we might better understand all other forms of consciousness. Obviously such issues cannot be addressed cogently without neuroscientific strategies. Here I summarize my approach, which seeks to overlay (to supervene) basic affective issues onto the intrinsic instinctual emotional systems that evolution constructed into mammalian brains in “deep time” (Panksepp, 1982, 1998a). My overall aim has been to understand the nature of human affective experiences, and this approach is gaining some recognition by investigators of human emotions (e.g., Buck, 1985, 1999; Damasio et al., 2000; Solms & Nersessian, 1999). This synopsis will be largely focused on our work on the topic during the past three decades.

Type
Chapter
Information
Feelings and Emotions
The Amsterdam Symposium
 , pp. 174 - 193
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

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