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Eight generic emotion categories are postulated from the interaction of three dimensions concerning the individual and the external world: (a) one can be attracted or repulsed, (b) one may wish to approach an object or withdraw from it, and (c) one may attend to “it”; i.e., to something external to the self, or to “me”; i.e., to the self. The categories Dahl generates from these dimensions are as follows: “attraction to it” and repulsion to it,” corresponding to which are appetites we could characterize as “take care of it” (a loving attitude) or “get rid of it” (an angry attitude). Corresponding to the categories “attraction from it” and “repulsion from it” are the emotions of fascination and horror, and their respective appetites, “behold it” and “escape from it.” Another set of emotions, contentment, depression, elation and anxiety, correspond to “positive passive me” (with the feeling: “mission accomplished”), “negative passive me” (“mission failed”), “positive active me” (“mission going well”), and “negative active me” (“mission not going well”).
What is novel about Dahl's conception is that fear is seen as appetitive (one seeks to escape). Angry, hostile behavior that is often understood as a function of aggressive drives may now be seen, in many instances, as the operation of a special class of wishes with the properties of appetites.
Adaptive efforts can be visualized as directed toward resolving the problems we experience on account of competing appetites. Dahl stresses the need to recognize certain appetites as relating directly to other people, in contrast to the traditional sensory-experience-oriented appetites such as hunger and thirst.