Over the past two decades, there has been an expanding scientific interest both in the development and regulation of affects, and in the impact of dysregulated affects on mental and physical health. This interest in affects has been prompted by the development of new technologies and experimental methods for investigating brain functions, and by fascinating findings from observational studies of the infant–caregiver relationship. While the former have advanced our understanding of the brain mechanisms involved in emotions, the latter have led to reformulations of the nature, functions, and early development of affects that have important clinical implications. At the same time, the development of new measurement instruments has enabled researcher–clinicians to investigate temperamental or dispositional differences in affectivity, and to conduct empirical studies to explore the role of dysregulated affects in a variety of medical and psychiatric illnesses. Indeed, the study of affects has become an exciting interdisciplinary activity involving developmental psychology, personality psychology, neurobiology, psychoanalysis, biological psychiatry, psychophysiology, psychosomatic medicine, and the communication sciences.

The aim of this book is to show how some of the theoretical models and research resulting from this interdisciplinary activity provide a new clinical perspective from which certain medical and psychiatric illnesses can be reconceptualized as disorders of affect regulation.