One of the maladies of living that seems to be of endemic proportions in Western society is affective deficit, experienced as emptiness, lack of fulfillment, dissatisfaction with obvious success, or a sense of not being complete nor even of being okay. This paper establishes a case for the importance of recognizing and developing interventions for deficit states, particularly affective deficit, in clients and patients. Of the three categories of deficit states (cognitive, affective, and behavioral), affective deficit is the most difficult to circumscribe. Definition and description are given, most clearly in the experience of emptiness within a context of "Everything is going extremely well." Results from two studies are provided, one on obsessive-compulsive disordered subjects and one on individuals who had experienced dissolution of long term relationships. An overview of intervention strategy is given. It is concluded that there are sufficient explanations and data supportive of an area of affective deficit to warrant more empirical study. (Author/TS)