10 Strange Emotions People Feel But Don't Have A Name For
How to finally explain the strange feelings you have.
Michele Piacquadio, Canva Pro Have you ever had the persistent feeling that you were out of place, or felt a sense of sadness that you will never know what will happen to your great-great-grandchildren? Some of these strange emotions have names — but others don't.
We feel more than we have the language to articulate and express, which is profoundly frustrating. People work through these strange emotions by being able to identify them and use them as signals.
Here are strange emotions people feel but don't have a name for:
1. Opia
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This is the name given to the intense feeling of invasive intimacy that one feels when engaging in mutual gaze — making direct eye contact with someone else. A great deal of research has been done on eye contact and it is well established that eye contact can be arousing.
The intimacy is often interpreted based on the circumstances. If the person is perceived as a threat, it is unpleasant. If two people are attracted to each other, it is pleasant and exciting.
2. Déjà vu
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Most everyone knows this one: It is the feeling that you’ve been someplace before or that you are repeating an event.
Memory psychologists believe that this is caused by features from an experience that are triggered by features of the new experience, which are similar in some way. Approximately 75% of people report experiencing déjà vu.
Déjà vu is likely caused by a mismatch in brain processing. A current situation triggers a sense of familiarity due to subtle similarities with an experience, even if the person can't consciously recall the memory.
A study published by Psychology of Learning and Motivation explained that déjà vu often happens when parts of the brain responsible for recognizing familiar situations are activated inappropriately, leading to a conflict between the feeling of familiarity and the knowledge that the situation is new.
3. Ellipsism
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This is the term given to a sense of sadness one experiences when realizing that one won’t live to see the future. For example, an elderly person may be sad because he won’t get to see a newborn baby age into adulthood.
4. Chrysalism
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Have you ever had a sense of warmth, peace, and tranquility when you are warm and dry inside the house during an intense rainstorm? This experience could be likened to feeling like you are back in the womb, and so has been labeled "chrysalism."
This is often linked to a desire for comfort, security, and complete protection, usually stemming from early developmental experiences in the womb. 2011 research found that it can manifest in various ways, including seeking enclosed spaces, deep pressure, or repetitive behaviors that mimic the rhythmic sensations of being inside the mother's uterus.
5. Adronitis
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This is a sense of frustration experienced when meeting a new and interesting person, but realizing how long it is going to take to develop the relationship fully. You want the relationship to develop quickly, but you know it won’t.
Research on relationships suggests that one mechanism for developing closeness is reciprocal self-disclosure, i.e. successively revealing personal information to each other, which takes some time.
6. Liberosis
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The desire to care less about things. As we mature into adults, we take on more and more responsibilities. Liberosis is the feeling you get when you wish you could be a child again, without care and concerns.
The desire to care less about things is often associated with apathy, which refers to a lack of interest, motivation, or emotional response to things that usually evoke a reaction. Research published by the Journal Of The American Medical Association suggests this can stem from factors like burnout, depression, trauma, or neurological conditions and is often linked to decreased activity in the brain's frontal lobe, which is responsible for planning and decision-making.
7. Énouement
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Have you ever wished that you could go back in time and tell your past self about the future? This is enouement.
When something has turned out well, you recall how your younger self worried about it, and you wish that you could go back and let your younger self know that things will turn out okay.
8. Jouska
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This is a hypothetical conversation that you play out over and over in your head. For example, replaying an argument in your head where you say all the right things and “win” the argument, or practicing asking your boss for a raise and playing out his or her responses and your comebacks.
2014 research explained that this is a mental practice session in which you imagine saying the perfect things. It can be considered a form of cognitive rehearsal. Although it is not currently a formally studied psychological construct, it is often discussed about social anxiety and rumination behaviors.
9. Exulansis
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A sense of frustration when you realize that you are talking about an important experience, but other people are unable to understand or relate to it, and so you give up talking about it.
10. Fugue state
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This last one is a psychological condition in which the individual moves about and speaks, but without conscious awareness. Fugue states can be alcohol or drug-induced, where an individual has no memory of his or her actions.
High stress and trauma are the primary causes of this rare psychiatric disorder. According to a 2015 study, fugue states are a form of dissociation that can help people cope with overwhelming trauma by disconnecting from the situation.
Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D., is the Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology at Claremont McKenna College.