This paper offers a description of the way we conceptualise rational behaviour in four different languages: English, French, Spanish, and German. The analysis focuses on those linguistic realisations in which 'head' has a prominent role. The study can be divided into two distinct parts. In the first part the author argues in favour of the existence of a continuum between metaphor and metonymy, and explores the metonymic basis of most head metaphors. In the second part she analyses the image-schemas which most frequently interact with metaphor in the folk model understanding of the head as the site of rational behaviour, and explains their function in the mapping. Finally, the different metaphorical mappings are arranged in a semantic network which lays bare the connections which exist among them. (Francisco Ruiz de Mendoza and Olga Díez)