Author: Jonathan

Jonathan Cook is a researcher of commercial culture, specializing in immersive interviews designed to uncover the emotions, symbols, stories and rituals that drive our behavior in unexpected directions.
gigil

Gigil

Speakers of Tagalog, the most common language in the Philippines, speak of a particular kind of emotion that comes over people, making them grit their teeth or tremble with the futile effort to… more emotion Gigil

bitterness

Bitterness

Bitterness finds an uncomfortable discomfort in the feeling of justification for standing apart from the aesthetic of the simply happy.

washed up

Washed Up

The fear of the washed up is that, with their image tarnished, they’ll never again be given a chance to prove themselves.

retrouvailles

Retrouvailles

The feeling of retrouvailles comes when people who once were close are able to share simple experiences together as they once did.

friluftsliv

Friluftsliv

Friluftsliv is both the practice of purposefully spending significant amounts of time outdoors and the emotion that this practice engenders.

compassion fatigue

Compassion Fatigue

True compassion fatigue occurs among those who work regularly with people who are suffering from trauma.

compassionate

Compassion

Compassion is felt most often in spite of formal ethical education, rather than because of it. As an emotion, it exists most authentically because of what we feel to be right, regardless of what we’ve been taught to think.

surly

Surly

Think of an aristocrat, a lord with an elegant manor house, powerful social connections, habitual deference from those around him, and massive amounts of inherited money. Now picture his reaction when he discovers… more emotion Surly

devotion

Devotion

There are things that we’ll do for as long as we live because they suit our nature. Every day, for example, I take some time aside from my work to look off into… more emotion Devotion

autumnal

Autumnal

The emotional suffering of wintertime is well known, so strong that it often endures into springtime. An autumnal mood, however, is more complex. We feel hints of lingering warmth in the Fall, along… more emotion Autumnal