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.
Dadirri

Dadirri

A person experiencing dadirri is willing to slow down and pay attention to the subtext of a moment, to try to hear what is really being said, to see what is truly being felt in the moment.

hypochondria

Hypochondria

Medical doctors try to sound clinical about it, and refer to this emotional state as illness anxiety disorder or hypochondriasis, but almost everybody else still uses the term hypochondria.

fish out of water

Fish Out Of Water

If only one had been born in a different place or time, life would make sense, and one’s best qualities would be apparent to everyone.

stubborn

Stubborn

There are people who will say that stubbornness is a character flaw, but the people who hold this opinion are those who don’t want people to be the way they are.

confidence

Confidence

Confident people don’t hesitate, because they feel that they know exactly what they’re getting themselves into.

wistful

Wistful

A wistful feeling is a wispy thing, a delicately held contemplation of something with a note of desire, but no urgency.

embarrassment

Embarrassment

The pain of embarrassment come from the gap between what the embarrassed person would like to believe about who they are, and what they have been seen to be.

emasculated

Emasculated

“Man up,” people say, but what does that mean? The identity of a real man can only exist through the exclusion of others who fail to meet the demands of the masculine ideology.

respect

Respect

When a person feels respect, they feel compelled to look at a person more than once, taking note of worthwhile qualities on a second glance.

Tizzy

In a Tizzy

It’s an emotional storm full of rushing bursts of wind filled with bubbles and shards of hard feelings.