Examining Jane Austen's "Persuasion" and the Concept of Core Affect

Anne Elliot, the heroine of Jane Austen’s book Persuasion, is a woman of strong feelings. The persistent, if muted, sadness Anne suffers at the start of the novel is certainly all-encompassing, as is the intense joy she feels on the renewal of her engagement. But the two moments exemplify very different types of emotion. The first is what Diana Fosha, founder of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) calls an “aversive affect,” while the second instances “core affect.” AEDP maintains that core affect both enables and signals mental healing.

Core vs. aversive affects

Aversive affects are defensive, warding off the possibility of painful encounters, or masking feelings too dangerous to confront, as when anxiety blocks a person from engaging in relationships or experiences that would promote healing and growth. Core affects, conversely, are authentic and lively, engendering energy or relaxation.

Even if they are painful, core affects lead to relief, as in expressing intense grief over the death of a loved one rather than enduring persistent depression. Aversive affects tend to be sustained states of feeling, useful for the situation in which they evolved but harmful in the long run, while core affects are finite, specific instances of feeling.

And core affects are transformative, leading to the most efficacious responses: As Fosha states, when we access “core affects (emotional responses when we do not try to mask, block, distort, or severely mute) deep transformational processes are activated ... The seeds of healing are contained with them [because] ... they will function in the interest of optimal adaptation."

Anne's healing

Anne’s healing depends on her ability to replace aversive affects with core affects. At the start of the novel, she is depressed, a state of being she has suffered for eight long years since her broken engagement with Captain Wentworth. No help has been forthcoming to lift her depression, which is manifest in her demeanor and actions. Anne is quiet and withdrawn, and she absents herself from pleasurable experiences, as when she plays the piano so that others can dance.

By playing rather than dancing, Anne cuts off the possibility of connecting with peers, be they friends or suitors. But Captain Wentworth’s return to the area galvanizes Anne’s feelings, causing strong, authentic affect to pierce her defensive armor. Very different kinds of emotions begin to emerge in her encounters with Wentworth.

One important moment of core affect for Anne takes place in response to Wentworth’s sensitivity and empathy, his ability to resonate with her state of mind. Wentworth relieves Anne of her annoying nephew, a toddler who has climbed on her back and who refuses to listen to the adults who are chiding him to leave his aunt alone. Only Wentworth perceives her distress and realizes what must be done.

When Wentworth lifts the child, Anne grasps the significance of what has taken place, and she experiences a mix of emotions in response: “His kindness in stepping forward for her relief ... with the conviction ... that he meant to avoid hearing her thanks ... produced such a confusion of varying but painful agitation that she could not recover from, till enabled by the entrance of Mary and the Miss Musgroves to make over her little patient [her nephew] to their cares, and leave the room.” At that moment, Anne, usually attentive and responsive to others, loses interest in their feelings “until she had a little better arranged her own.”

While Austen leaves it to her readers to name Anne’s feelings precisely, the encounter suggests that Anne experiences the kind of relief and satisfaction most of us feel when we are understood (this is the basis of the therapeutic alliance). Literary critic Christien Garcia captures the depth and resonance of this encounter, characterizing it as “closeness beyond the imperative of listening, voice and reciprocity.”

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Anne also feels gratitude for Wentworth’s actions, and sadness that he immediately withdraws from any further conversation with her. These emotions activate intensely, but they also pass; Anne recovers from her “painful agitation.” As her healing progresses, we see increasing instances of Anne’s core affect, including the roller coaster of hope and disappointment that eventually leads to her reunion with Wentworth.

Characterizing Anne's sadness

While Anne feels sad for many reasons, not all sadness is equivalent. Sadness, and many other feelings, can be characterized as core or aversive affect depending on their function and context.

The sadness at the heart of Anne's depression mutes her perceptions and distorts her feelings: aligned with shame, her melancholy keeps her quiet and sequestered. She has given up on herself, and she fails to understand that the situation with Wentworth might not be as she assumes, which is that he feels nothing but contempt for her. His not having married during the past eight years might have told her something, but Anne willfully avoids him. However, her sadness at the pain of others is a core affect that leads to adaptive responses. Distress for both Benwick and Mrs. Smith prompts Anne to offer comfort to each.

At the conclusion of Persuasion, the narrator tells us that Anne’s source of happiness, her “spring of felicity” is in love ("tenderness") for Wentworth and in his love for her. These are sustained feelings, but they are not aversive. On the contrary, they are sources of well-being, whose distinguishing features, like all core affect, are their authenticity and capacity for motivating healthy, beneficial modes of feeling, thinking, and being.

Tenderness leaves Anne vulnerable rather than defended, engaged rather than withdrawn. Because Wentworth is a naval officer on active duty, Anne “dread[s] a future war that could dim her sunshine.” But readers have faith that Anne’s discarding of defensiveness, and her reconnection with authentic feeling, will enable her to face adversity with courage. Anne will be present to herself and present for others, whatever the future brings.