POSITIVE EMOTIONS FOR PSYCHOANALYTIC-THEORY - SURPRISES FROM INFANCY RESEARCH AND NEW DIRECTIONS

Contemporary psychoanalytic thinking about motivation is likely to give positive emotions an increasingly prominent place. This essay reviews the basis for this statement in the author's infancy research, as well as in other recent research that is developmental, neurophysiological, and experimental. New directions include reformulating the drive theory with our knowledge about positive emotions in incentives, scripts, and fantasy formation. Developmental motives involving exploration and "getting it right" about an expanding world must be considered as well as experiences involving negentropy pleasure. New perspectives may guide clinical practice as they generate surprise and new questions.