ABSTRACT
Sentimentality is merely the bank holiday of cynicism. It might well be felt that a satisfactory analysis of sentimentality could only proceed, or be derived from, an account in quite general terms of the emotions and their relationships to their causes and objects. The opposing views about whether sentimentality can be an intrinsic property, or is necessarily relational, can probably only be satisfactorily dealt with by introducing further and wider considerations about the inner life. Sentimentality, then, is the name of several kinds of disease of the feelings, in which the elements of feeling "in the void", of unfocused emotion, and of being prepared for huge bouts of emotional response to virtually random, or alternatively direly predictable stimuli, are all closely connected. While the alleged connection between cynicism and sentimentality seems clear, it is less evident that a strong connection exists between sentimentality and cruelty.
