The Role of Affectivity in Pre-Reflective Experience. The Contributions of Neuroscientific, Psychoanalytical and Developmental Perspectives

The article investigates the role of affectivity in the construction of the pre-reflective experience, that is, the mode of experience that directs and guides the organism in a rapid and immediate adaptation to the environment. According to a multidisciplinary approach that brings together affective neuroscience, psychology, and psychoanalysis, emotions and affects are considered as matrices of thought, mental development, agency and generation of cognitive and psychobiological regulation models. The connection between emotions, psychobiological regulation and learning is investigated focusing on the enhancement of the unconscious nature of these processes and their relational matrix, consistently with the theories of Bion and Bowlby. In order to re-evaluate the fundamental link between affectivity and corporeity, we introduce the PNEI perspective on an integration of the new biology (anti-reductionist and inspired by the epigenetic research) with the psychological disciplines and the humanities. According with a network model, it is also discussed the Schore’s proposal of a possible welding between the second generation attachment theory and affect regulation theory, on the basis of some recent and complex models of mind-body integration.