In line with the recent surge of critical interest in early psychology, the contributors read Mansfield's work alongside figures like William James and Henri Bergson, opening up new perspectives on affect in her work. While these essays trace strands within the intellectual milieu in which Mansfield came of age, others explore the intricate interplay between Mansfield's fiction and Freudian theory, seeing her work as emblematic of the uncanny doubling of modernist literature and psychoanalysis.