Emotional Granularity

The consistent admonitions against morbid feelings hint at a taboo against focusing on the negative aspects of life… especially death.

Pretending that death isn’t something to be bothered about is obviously unrealistic, but there’s no clinical term to describe the psychopathology of people who deny the reality of death.

Our rational minds will calculate the best way to achieve our goals, but why do we have those goals in the first place? We don’t often stop to consider this question, because it’s… more emotion Ambition

It’s a word constructed in imitation of a disease, but everyone understands that senioritis is not a physical malady. It’s an expected step in the psychological transition from childhood to young adulthood in… more emotion Senioritis

The etymology of the word hangry doesn’t seem that complicated at first. After all, it’s portmanteau of hungry and angry. So, the word hangry would seem to describe the kind of anger a… more emotion Hangry

Panic is named after the half-human, half-animal Greek god Pan, who was said to have the ability to inspire an irresistable, desperate urge to run away, as if a terrifying doom was about… more emotion Panic

Some emotions are subtle, like hints of fragrance in the air or sounds so soft that we wonder if we have merely imagined hearing them. La douleur exquise is not like this. It… more emotion La Douleur Exquise

There are some people who overestimate their own worth, arrogantly presuming that they are the best choice for any task at hand, whether or not they have much relevant experience. People with impostor… more emotion Impostor Syndrome

Sometimes it feels as if there isn’t enough air to breathe, and a panicky impulse to run begins to build. If you can’t get away, you might die, at least on the inside.

To feel envy is to feel a hunger for something that someone has, whether it’s a concrete object, or less tangibly, an identity or way of life. Jealousy is a desperate view from… more emotion Jealousy