Choosing Emotions

For centuries, emotion has been debated, measured, regulated, and theorized, yet no single work has mapped the full range of everyday emotional experience across disciplines—until now. D. Earl Johnston introduces a groundbreaking reference that defines 272 emotional states, drawing on 3,000 years of thought spanning philosophy, science, linguistics, psychology, art, and spiritual traditions.Expanding far beyond psychology, the work integrates perspectives from seven fields and over 30 philosophical and faith traditions. Organized as an accessible "Emotionary," it also presents three frameworks: emotions as an internal operating system, the gears driving behavior, and a unifying bridge across cultures. Mr. Johnston is a former corporate executive, testifying expert and world champion sailor. Over a multi-decade career spanning banking, private equity and litigation consulting, he developed a sustained interest in language, motivation and emotional definition.