Affect and the Feeling Self

Abstract

This chapter continues the argument that affect is integral to all aspects of experience, turning from flow and meaning to a consideration of self-awareness and the feeling self—the self at the core of all conscious experience. Evidence of a close connection between affect and our sense of self is easily found in experience. Although affect can be felt at some remove (for instance, as a property of objects), the most powerful affective feelings seem to touch the very center of our being. This intimate connection is reflected by common ways of talking about our “innermost feelings” or “feelings of the heart.” Indeed, it seems impossible to have a strong affective feeling that does not deeply impact our self in some way, just as it seems impossible for us to feel deeply impacted in a way that is not affective. These observations suggest that our feeling self is, in the words of William James, “that to which pleasure and pain speak.” Perhaps we can also say that if not for affect we would have no sense of self. For is it not affect that makes our experience seem to belong uniquely to us?