We often hear about affect when it comes to any illegal action: "murder in a state of passion." However, this concept is not limited to criminal matters. Affect can both destroy and save a person.
Stress response
Science perceives affect as a complex phenomenon - a combination of mental, physiological, cognitive and emotional processes. This is a short-term peak state, or, in other words, the reaction of the body during which psychophysiological resources are thrown into the fight against stress caused by the external environment.
Affect is usually a response to an event that has occurred, but it is already based on a state of internal conflict. Affect provokes a critical, often unexpected situation, from which a person is not able to find an adequate way out.
Experts distinguish between common and cumulative affect. In the first case, affect is due to the direct impact of the stressor on a person, in the second, it is the result of the accumulation of relatively weak factors, each of which, individually, is not capable of causing a state of passion.
In addition to the excitement of the body, affect can provoke inhibition and even blockage of its functions. In this case, a person is seized by any one emotion, for example, panic horror: in a state of asthenic affect, instead of active actions in a daze, a person observes the events unfolding around him.
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How to recognize an affect
Affect is sometimes difficult to distinguish from other mental states. For example, affect differs from ordinary feelings, emotions and moods by its intensity and short duration, as well as by the obligatory presence of a provoking situation.
There are differences between affect and frustration. The latter is always a long-term motivational and emotional state that arises as a result of the inability to satisfy a particular need.
Differences between affect and trance are more difficult to distinguish as they have a lot in common. For example, in both states there are violations of the conscious volitional control of behavior. One of the main differences is that trance, unlike affect, is caused not by situational factors, but by painful changes in the psyche.
Experts also distinguish between the concepts of affect and insanity. Although the characteristics of an individual's behavior in both states are very similar, in the case of affect they are not accidental. Even in situations where a person is not able to control his impulses, he becomes their captive of his own free will.
Physiological changes with affect
Affect is always accompanied by physiological changes in the human body. The first thing that is observed is a powerful adrenaline rush. Then comes the time of autonomic reactions - the pulse, respiration quickens, blood pressure rises, peripheral vascular spasms occur, and coordination of movements is disturbed.
People who have suffered a state of passion observe physical exhaustion and exacerbation of chronic diseases.
Physiological affect
Affect is usually divided into physiological and pathological. Physiological affect is an intense emotion that completely takes over a person's consciousness, as a result of which control over one's own actions decreases. Deep clouding of consciousness in this case does not occur, and the person usually retains self-control.
Pathological affect
Pathological affect is a violent psychophysiological reaction that is characterized by the suddenness of the onset, in which the intensity of the experience is much higher than with physiological affect, and the nature of emotions is centered around such states as rage, anger, fear, despair. With pathological affect, the normal course of the most important mental processes - perception and thinking, is usually disrupted, a critical assessment of reality disappears and volitional control over actions is sharply reduced.
The German psychiatrist Richard Kraft-Ebing drew attention to a profound disorder of consciousness with pathological affect with the resulting fragmentary and confused memories of what happened. And the Russian psychiatrist Vladimir Serbsky attributed the pathological affect to the states of insanity and unconsciousness.
According to doctors, the state of pathological affect usually lasts a few seconds, during which there is a sharp mobilization of the body's resources - a person at this moment is able to demonstrate abnormal strength and reaction.
Phases of pathological affect
Despite the severity and short duration, psychiatrists distinguish three phases of pathological affect.
The preparatory phase is marked by an increase in emotional stress, a change in the perception of reality and a violation of the ability to adequately assess the situation. At this point, consciousness is limited by the traumatic experience - everything else does not exist for it.
The explosion phase is already directly aggressive actions, which, according to the description of the Russian psychiatrist Sergei Korsakov, are "in the nature of complex arbitrary acts committed with the cruelty of an automaton or machine." In this phase, mimic reactions are observed, which demonstrate a sharp change in emotions - from anger and rage to despair and bewilderment.
The final phase is usually accompanied by a sudden exhaustion of physical and mental strength. After it, an irresistible desire for sleep or a state of prostration may arise, characterized by lethargy and complete indifference to what is happening.
Affect and criminal law
The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation distinguishes between crimes committed with mitigating and aggravating circumstances. Taking this into account, a murder committed in a state of passion (Article 107 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and the infliction of grave or moderate harm to health in a state of passion (Art. 113 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) are referred to as mitigating circumstances.
According to the Criminal Code, affect acquires criminal legal significance only when “a state of sudden strong emotional agitation (affect) is caused by violence, bullying, grave insult on the part of the victim or other illegal or immoral actions (inaction) of the victim, as well as prolonged psycho-traumatic a situation arising in connection with the systematic illegal or immoral behavior of the victim”.
Lawyers emphasize that the situation provoking the emergence of affect should exist in reality, and not in the imagination of the subject. However, the same situation can be perceived differently by a person who has committed a crime in a state of passion - it depends on the characteristics of his personality, psycho-emotional state and other factors.
The severity and depth of an affective outburst is far from always proportional to the strength of the provoking circumstance, which explains the paradoxicality of some affective reactions. In such cases, only a comprehensive psychological and psychiatric examination can assess the mental functioning of a person in a state of passion.