Choosing Emotions by D. Earl Johnston

By D. Earl (“Doug”) Johnston | September 17, 2026 “Trauma represents a catastrophic rupture in vocabulary. We can be overwhelmed beyond words. Relief emerges when we put words to what happened.” — D. Earl Johnston Purpose of This Paper This paper builds on Choosing Emotions Research Notes No. 1 (“Trauma as Emotional ‘Tilt’: Observations and Model, Synthesized Against 130 Years…

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A Choosing Emotions Media Room White Paper By D. Earl (“Doug”) Johnston — August 17, 2026 “I became interested in what happens when we put precise words to what we are feeling. Over nine years I researched 8,000 phrases and quotes about 272 emotions from 1,800 thinkers across 25 centuries. One of my conclusions is:” Science measures life from the…

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Choosing Emotions Research Notes — No. 1: Trauma By D. Earl (“Doug”) Johnston Prepared August 14, 2026 — starting point: Johnston’s own experience, query, and research regarding the trauma/”tilt” hypothesis for Choosing Emotions (2025) Purpose of This Paper D. Earl (“Doug”) Johnston has proposed, in his original query and framing reproduced below, a synthesis and working model about trauma developed…

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© D. Earl Johnston, 2026 Author, Choosing Emotions: Thinking with Your Head and Acting with Your Heart Below is a consilience — a convergence of independent conclusions arrived at across nineteen disciplines and twenty-five centuries about the role of vocabulary in emotional experience. No single tradition, school, or century owns the conclusion. Each voice represents persistently shared observations across these…

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by D. Earl Johnston For decades, leading psychologists, neuroscientists, and advanced researchers have pointed to the same gap in our understanding of emotions. Emotional literacy is a cherished target, yet our everyday emotional vocabulary is often too shallow. We often still grasp for the right words, and most of us experience difficulty in describing how we feel. Naming our feelings…

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