Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Editor's preface
- List of contributors
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Affect theory
- Introduction
- Selections by Silvan S. Tomkins
- Part II Affect and ideology
- Introduction
- Selections by Silvan S. Tomkins
- Part III The face of affect
- Introduction
- Selections by Silvan S. Tomkins
- What and where are the primary affects? Some evidence for a theory (with Robert McCarter)
- The phantasy behind the face
- The role of facial response in the experience of emotion: A reply to Tourangeau and Ellsworth
- Inverse archaeology: Facial affect and the interfaces of scripts within and between persons
- Part IV Script theory: The differential magnification of affect
- Introduction
- Selections by Silvan S. Tomkins
- Part V Human being theory: A foundation for the study of personality
- Introduction
- Selections by Silvan S. Tomkins
- A complete annotated bibliography of Silvan S. Tomkins's writings
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
- Titles in the series
Inverse archaeology: Facial affect and the interfaces of scripts within and between persons
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Editor's preface
- List of contributors
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Affect theory
- Introduction
- Selections by Silvan S. Tomkins
- Part II Affect and ideology
- Introduction
- Selections by Silvan S. Tomkins
- Part III The face of affect
- Introduction
- Selections by Silvan S. Tomkins
- What and where are the primary affects? Some evidence for a theory (with Robert McCarter)
- The phantasy behind the face
- The role of facial response in the experience of emotion: A reply to Tourangeau and Ellsworth
- Inverse archaeology: Facial affect and the interfaces of scripts within and between persons
- Part IV Script theory: The differential magnification of affect
- Introduction
- Selections by Silvan S. Tomkins
- Part V Human being theory: A foundation for the study of personality
- Introduction
- Selections by Silvan S. Tomkins
- A complete annotated bibliography of Silvan S. Tomkins's writings
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
- Titles in the series
Summary
The title “Inverse Archaeology” was chosen, of course, for its ambiguity. It was designed to both illustrate and, hopefully, validate the conception of facial affect as the interface of scripts within and between persons. I chose the title to evoke your curiosity and hopefully your excitement about what it might mean and by shared excitement, in mutually contagious resonance, to invite you to sustained conceptual intimacy for this hour.
Archaeology digs deep to bring fossils and artifacts of the past to the surface. Our field, which I have dubbed inverse archaeology, assumes (at least I assume) that the surface of the skin is where it is at, not deep within us, that the skin is the major motivational organ, and that a smile is where it appears to be. It is not in a group of happy cortical neurons nor in the folds in the stomach. But like the pain of torture, the pleasure of sexual seduction, or the irresistible sleepiness at the site of the eyelids, that region is the site of exquisitely sensitive receptors on the surface of the skin, whether we're talking about drives or pain or affects or whatever. The centrality of this organ, this skin, somehow, which is right under our noses, we have failed to properly evaluate. For example, there are at least 250 theories of sleep, which I have reviewed at one time or another.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Exploring AffectThe Selected Writings of Silvan S Tomkins, pp. 284 - 290Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995