Dictionary of Inner Experience

A response to a perceived wrong, obstacle, or violation, oriented toward confrontation.

A visceral aversive reaction to something perceived as contaminating or unacceptable, with a genuinely bodily signature distinguishing it from Contempt's coolness.

A rapid response to a perceived immediate, identifiable threat.

A response to something appraised as good, moderate to high in activation, and tied to a specific moment rather than sustained.

A response to loss or an unmet want, broad in cause and duration.

A brief orienting reaction to an unexpected event, valence-neutral until appraisal resolves it toward pleasant or unpleasant. Its status as a true emotion versus a pre-emotional reflex is genuinely disputed in the literature.

A settled dislike or aversion toward someone or something, milder and more passive than Hatred.

A sustained state of tension and worry without one clear, immediate object — diffuse, future-oriented, and cognitively elaborated, unlike Fear's sharp present focus.

Dread's quieter sibling — a low-intensity anticipatory discomfort about a known-ish upcoming event.

A cool, dismissive sense of superiority toward someone judged unworthy — low activation compared to Anger, defined by distance rather than heat.

Joy intensified by a violated positive expectation — something better than hoped for.

Sadness from an expectation that was violated — inherently comparative between what happened and what was expected.

Fear's anticipatory register — the threat is specific and identified, only its timing is still to come.

Wanting a quality, possession, or standing that someone else has, with no existing relationship at stake — the pain is purely comparative, unlike Jealousy.

Joy at an intensity that can feel disorienting, often driven by exertion, relief, or a physiological cause rather than an ordinary event.

High-activation positive anticipation, forward-looking rather than reactive.

Tension from a blocked goal specifically — the appraisal is 'something is stopping me,' not 'someone wronged me,' and can occur with no other person involved.

An intense, sustained aversion toward a person or thing, combining anger and disgust with a wish for their harm or removal.

A low tolerance for delay — an impulse state rather than a discrete emotion, oriented toward wanting time itself to move faster.

Anger specifically about a perceived moral violation — a fairness or rule breach — which is why it can be felt on someone else's behalf, unlike Irritation.

Anger at low intensity, usually triggered by repeated minor friction rather than one clear wrong.

A blend of fear of loss, anger, and insecurity, requiring a third party who threatens an existing relationship or possession.

An acute fear response defined by intensity and physiological override, often disproportionate to or disconnected from the actual threat level.

Anger at an intensity that overrides self-control.

The painful appraisal of having been excluded or refused by someone whose acceptance mattered.

A release following the resolution or removal of a sustained threat or burden — it structurally requires a preceding negative state, and is often mixed with sadness or guilt.

Anger that has moved from a single episode into a lasting disposition, usually directed at a specific person with a sense of accumulated unfairness.

Excitement's narrower, risk- or adrenaline-specific variant.

Anxiety's least cognitively elaborated cousin — a bodily signal felt before it is understood.

The felt clash between a search for meaning and a world that offers no confirming answer.

A response to something perceived as vast, overwhelming one's current frame of understanding — combining high valence with a genuine cognitive frame-shift.

An orientation toward an unknown that motivates approach and inquiry rather than avoidance.

Sadness combined with the belief that the situation cannot improve — the hopelessness itself is what separates it from ordinary sadness.

Dread's register when its object is one's own finitude or the structure of existence itself, rather than a specific upcoming event.

An orientation toward a desired future outcome perceived as possible, though not certain.

A sustained wanting directed at something distant or unattainable, without Nostalgia's specific orientation to the past.

A state in which one's activities or existence are experienced as lacking purpose or significance.

A bittersweet longing for a fondly remembered, simultaneously unavailable past — genuinely ambivalent, not reducible to either sadness or happiness.

A state in which ordinary self-boundaries feel temporarily dissolved or exceeded, often experienced as connection to something larger.

A chronic, existential absence of meaning — distinguished from Emptiness by having no proximate cause and no clear endpoint.

Curiosity intensified by something that exceeds ordinary explanation, without Awe's overwhelming scale.

Longing's more intense, often bodily-felt register.

A lighter, warmer, lower-stakes fondness than Love, without requiring its depth or duration.

A sense of estrangement from a group, place, or one's own experience, broader and more existential than momentary Loneliness.

Security and bond rather than active positive feeling in the moment — you can be attached to someone you are currently angry at.

A stable sense of being an accepted, secure part of a group or place — closer to a standing condition than a momentary connection.

A feeling of concern for another's suffering paired with a motivation to help.

Wanting, which can exist with or without Love and is closer to an impulse than a discrete emotion.

Sustained commitment and action toward someone or something, which can outlast the felt intensity of Love itself.

A positive feeling toward a specific person or circumstance recognized as having given something of value.

High-intensity, idealized, early-stage attraction — Love without the track record, usually short-lived.

A circumstantial state of being separated from others, which can be neutral rather than painful — the objective condition Loneliness names the felt version of.

The painful, subjective sense of lacking wanted connection — unlike Isolation, which can be neutral, and Solitude, which can be chosen.

A durable orientation combining care, valuing another's existence, and — variably — desire, attachment, and devotion.

A chosen, often restorative state of being alone, without the pain that defines Loneliness.

A settled expectation that another person or system will not cause harm, allowing reliance without constant vigilance.

Confusion that blocks action or decision — you don't know what to do next.

A genuinely distinct low-activation unpleasant state arising from a lack of engaging stimulation, not from any specific loss.

A low-activation, present-oriented satisfaction — closer to the absence of wanting than to Joy's active positive charge.

A state of general suffering under pressure — its own thing, not merely a restatement of Disappointment or Grief.

A reactive, often post-intensity depletion — tired and hollow after something, with a proximate cause, unlike Void's chronic and causeless register.

Sustained emotional suffering with a specific loss — usually bereavement — as its cause, moving in waves rather than sitting at one constant level. Often mixed with relief, anger, or guilt in the same episode.

A sustained evaluation of one's life or circumstances as good — closer to a mood or trait-like state than to Joy's moment-to-moment spike.

A sustained, diffuse state of low energy and flat affect with an open causal story, distinguished from the regulation strategy of Suppression that the source dictionary had bundled into it.

Sadness without a clear proximate cause — reflective and low-activation, closer to a mood than an event-response.

Confusion combined with surprise — more intellectual puzzle than paralysis, unlike Bewilderment.

A quieter, more sustained register of Sadness, without Grief's specific bereavement-related cause.

A milder social friction than Embarrassment — discomfort from an interaction whose norms are unclear, rather than from a specific misstep.

A light, socially-triggered discomfort from an imagined or actual observed misstep — inherently requires an audience, briefer and lower-stakes than Shame.

A response to a specific action judged wrong, oriented toward repair rather than hiding.

Shame imposed from outside by another's action — involuntary, public, and other-caused, often carrying anger at the humiliator alongside the shame.

A sense of the self's expansion or elevation following a valued achievement or quality, recognized as one's own.

A painful sense that the self as a whole is deficient, prompting a wish to hide — global and self-directed, unlike Guilt's action-specific focus.

Steering away from a feared or uncomfortable situation, thought, or feeling — a behavioral strategy, not the fear itself.

A sustained defensive stance of disengaging from felt emotion — an interpersonal style or coping strategy, not a discrete feeling in its own right.

Repetitive, unresolved dwelling on a distressing thought or event, which sustains rather than processes the feeling behind it.

Deliberately inhibiting the outward expression of a felt emotion — a strategy applied to a feeling, not a feeling itself.