Mystery of Emotions

R. D. Hinshelwood is professor emeritus at the University of Essex, and previously clinical director at the Cassel Hospital, London. He is a fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society, and a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He authored A Dictionary of Kleinian Thought in 1989, and Clinical Klein in 1994. A long-time advocate of alternative psychiatry, he was a founding member of The Association of Therapeutic Communities in 1974; and in 1980 he founded, with colleagues, The International Journal of Therapeutic Communities. He was involved in the Psychoanalysis and Public Sphere conferences in the 1980s and 1990s, and he has contributed each year to the Psychoanalysis and Political Mind Seminars. He has been a member of the Labour Party for fifty years.

• AcknowledgementsAbout the authorPrologue: A happy little girlPart I. Introduction – What, and who for?1. Theories and confusions2. What we already know3. Affects and cognitionPart II. The hard work – A method4. ‘Discoveries’ of four disciplines5. Clusters and dimensions6. A 3D space7. Congruence and complementarity: the social role of affects8. Exchange and beingEpilogue: What are our results?ReferencesIndex

R. D. Hinshelwood has a distinguished place in psychoanalysis and related fields. Deeply rooted in clinical practice, he has, over many years, encouraged a respect for objective knowledge of the subjective world, while retaining the aliveness of the psychoanalytic process, and he has shown us how to get to it. In this book, he applies his distinctive acumen to affects, the heart of human experience. What better place to grasp these dimensions together. We live in the immediacy of affects, they impel us to think and judge, we are social through them, and they are rooted in our bodies. Hinshelwood masterfully guides us into knowing them.’