This chapter reviews some of the central emotion processes and the respective role of consciousness (or its absence). Contrary to what seems to be current practice, I attemps to refrain from classifying phenomenainto conscious and unconscious, which implies a divide between two separate categories. Rather, I assume that a large majority of emotion processes functions in an unconscious mode and that only some of these processes (or their outcomes) will emerge into consciousness for some periods of time. I like Freud's metaphor of an iceberg, the bulk of which is invisible (the unconscious) with only a small tip above the surface (the conscious). If we assume that the fluid in which the emotion iceberg floats (the mental soup) can vary in consistency, buoyancy will determine the degree of emergence (the buoyant force is eqauel to the weight of the liquid that the object displaces. If the liquid is denser, the buoyant force is greater. Steel sinks in water but floats in mercury). Similarly, increases in density of mental processing may result in a greater emergence of processing intoconsciousness. The major purpose of this chapter is to analyse theoretically the conscious and unconscious processes in emotion elicitation and differenctiation. Specific research is cited as illustration, but no coherent, let alone exhaustive, review is intended.