Emotion and meaning: a contribution to the psychoanalytic theory of affect and motivation - In this paper, the concept of emotion is derived from neuroscience as a biological regulatory system which operating through a process of evaluation, anticipation and attribution of meaning fosters the construction of bodily marked schemas. Such embodied schemas are connected to the symbolic realm. Language acquisition and use of metaphors allow for processes of transformation and displacement leading to infinite outcomes of a schema. In this way, complex individual meanings are constructed and, thanks to emotions, these meanings elicit powerful motivations (whether positive or negative) virtually in all areas even in transference and defense without the need of assuming specific motivational systems. Such process could be understood as the basic mechanism of motivation. [KEY WORDS: theory, emotion, motivation, somatic marker, metaphor]