Richard Wollheim recruits into service the insights of literature and of psychoanalysis, as well as of philosophy, in this thought-provoking account of the emotions. Starting from the premise that emotions form a distinct psychological category, Wollheim argues that they are - like beliefs and desires - dispositions or underlying forces in the mind that erupt from time to time into the stream of consciousness. However, to assimilate emotions to beliefs or to desires or to some combination of the two is quite wrong. Emotions are attitudes or orientations to the world, says the author, and in this regard they are naturally associated with the imagination.