This work found to start a study about affect in psychoanalytic theory, through the circumscription of general problems reminded by the inexact development of the knowledge by along the self Freudian theoretical construction, and by the plurality of their appropriations in the post-Freudian literature. So, there were the following considered pairs as analysis focal points: affect and representation, quality and quantity, affect and insensibility. The concept of anxiety as example was used as a key to become clear the impasses and the contributions that were obtained during the whole process. The study delimitation has selected the manifests of André Green as main theoretical reference concerning to the subject, establishing the beginning that will restore the capture of metapsychological implications that are subjacent to the mentioned matter.