Aschoffsky Primary Affect

The first affective blow is the initial phase of the oncoming mental reaction of excitation. It appears as a burst of motor, speech and sensory manifestations in response to a stimulus of minor strength or duration. It can be clearly presented in contrastive definitions, i.e., which speak of reactions as opposed to neutral or non-reactive stimuli. The transience of primary affective manifestations and their good discriminative ability make it possible to characterize many acute affective reactions solely by the primary reaction and even by one of its details, for example, a “facial grimace” when frightened. In the clinic, motor, speech and other components are analyzed, which we identify as symptoms of primary affect. It should be noted the connection with the stimulus of the main external manifestations of the reaction, which allows us to consider them as nonspecific (pre-verbal. The topical framework (vasomotor, pilomotor, somatovegetative) of such manifestations are derivatives, determined by the “recipe” of a certain analyzer. In psychology, the term “primary" is adopted to denote the phenomena under discussion reaction." Such a name in itself does not correspond to the essence of these phenomena, so it is worth considering this concept in more detail.

According to orthodox anatomy, the primary response is a spontaneous act of a physiological organ initiated by a stimulus outside its sensory field. For example, fear is a reaction of the “eye”. Such a design indicates a lack of understanding of the structure of physiological reactions, since it does not imply the possibility of the participation of human experience in determining the volume of the sensory space of the organ. It is a person, interacting with his organs, who determines their boundaries

Aschoff's primary affect is a special type of autonomic activation of blood circulation and respiration, which is the result of morphological contact with a completely new object and has no analogues in previous experience. This kind of contact with a new object leads to the formation of a primary effect specific to it and some protective and compensatory adaptations of the body in order to effectively prepare for its perception. (Psychophysiological mechanisms of action acceptor / A. AShoff // Journal of higher nervous activity. - 1962, vol. 12, issue 2. - P. 304-314)

Aschoff described the concept of the physiological mechanism of the “affective circle”, which gives rise to a number of phenomena that require holistic consideration. Defining the affective circle as a mechanism mediated by subcortical and cortical mechanisms of sensory sensations and emotions and realized through the physiological mechanisms of the autonomic nervous system, Eysenck proved that all human emotions are based on one type of mechanism, in which the constitutional characteristics of the individual play an important role, including temperamental characteristics . Physiological basis and