In recent years-especially the past decade, in sharp contrast to
preceding decades-knowledge in the field of emotions has been steadily
increasing. This knowledge comes from many different specialties:
Emotion is a truly interdisciplinary subject. Workers in the fields of
physiology, neurology, ethology, physiological psychology, personality
and social psychology, clinical psychology and psychiatry, medicine,
nursing, social work, and the clergy are all directly concerned with
emotion. Professions such as law and architecture have an obvious
concern with emotions as they affect human motives and needs. The
various branches of art, especially the performing arts, certainly deal
with the emotions, especially with the expression of emotions.
Constantine Stanislavsky, the Russian theatrical genius, revolu-
tionized modem theater by developing a training method for actors and
actresses that emphasized creating genuine emotion on the stage, the
emotion appropriate to the character and the life situation being
depicted. Indeed, one can hardly think of any human activity that is not
related in some way to the field of emotion. Since the contributions to
the subject of emotions come from so many different disciplines, it is
difficult to find the important common themes that can yield an
understanding of the field as a whole. This volume will attempt to make
that task easier, but I recognize that no one can treat all of the
diverse material expertly and in detail. My aim will be to represent all
important types of contributions and perhaps point the way for further
and more intensive study of special topics.
