Researchers Have Found Names For Emotions We Couldn’t Pin Down Before
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There are many human emotions - sadness, anger and happiness, for example - but there are some that, however hard we try, we just can’t quite put into words.
If this often happens to you, good news - a new book has revealed names for 154 emotions you’ve probably never been able to put a name to.
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Tiffany Watt Smith, a research fellow at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary University of London, wrote The Book of Human Emotions due to the fact that we now understand human emotions more than ever before.
‘It’s this idea that what we mean by ‘emotion’ has evolved,’ she told Science of Us. ‘It’s now a physical thing — you can see a location of it in the brain.’
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And it may be hard to comprehend, but being able to name these sensations helps: ‘It’s a long-held idea that if you put a name to a feeling, it can help that feeling become less overwhelming,’ she said.
‘All sorts of stuff that’s swirling around and feeling painful can start to feel a bit more manageable.’
Here are a few examples from Smith’s book:
1. Amae: ‘Leaning on another person’s goodwill.” (Japan)
2. Awumbuk: ‘Emptiness after visitors depart.’ (Papua New Guinea)
3. Brabant: The feeling you get when you are ‘very much inclined to see how far you can push someone.’ (British)
4. Depaysement: ‘The feeling of being an outsider.’ (France)
5. Malu: ‘The sudden experience of feeling constricted, inferior and awkward around people of higher status.’ (Indonesia)
6. Pronoia: The ‘strange, creeping feeling that everyone’s out to help you.’ (US)
Do you think being able to describe emotions makes it easier to experience them? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.
