D. Earl Johnston Publishes First Cross-Disciplinary Reference Defining 272 Emotional States
WESTPORT, Conn., March 25, 2026 — For centuries, people have debated, measured, regulated and theorized about emotion. But no single work has attempted to define the full landscape of everyday emotional states across disciplines — until now. Choosing Emotions: Thinking with Your Head and Acting with Your Heart by D. Earl Johnston presents what is described as the first fully cross-disciplinary reference defining 272 emotional states drawn from 3,000 years of recorded thought in the fields of philosophy, science, linguistics, psychology, art and spiritual traditions.
“Not since Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence has there been such a needed shift in public discourse around emotions. Choosing Emotions seeks to do this, focusing first and foremost on how we define and categorize them,” said Johnston. “The result is akin to a ‘Barlett’s Thesaurus’ solely on the topic of emotions, and it is every bit as entertaining.”
Going far beyond primal feelings of fear, anger, joy and sorrow, Choosing Emotions seeks to address what Johnston describes as a foundational gap in emotional literacy.
“We talk extensively about emotional intelligence and emotional regulation,” Johnston said. “But how can there be emotional literacy without suitable attention to definitions?”
According to the book’s research notes, roughly one quarter of the 272 emotional states included in the book are not found in major psychology dictionaries or other references, including commonly used terms such as admiration, confidence, procrastination and zeal. The work expands the discussion beyond psychology, incorporating definitional perspectives from seven fields and more than 30 faith and philosophical traditions.
Structured as an accessible “Emotionary,” the book allows readers to browse individual emotional states while also engaging three overarching conceptual frameworks that Johnston introduces:
- Emotions function as a continuous internal “Operating System.”
- Emotions act as the “Gears of Life,” translating internal states into behavior.
- Emotions serve as a cultural and cognitive “Rosetta Stone,” bridging traditions and disciplines.
Johnston also advances an original linguistic framing of emotion as an “adverbial driver” of behavior — suggesting that emotions modify how actions are carried out, similar to adverbs in language. The book includes multidisciplinary sub-definitions and cross-referenced commentary intended for both general readers and academic audiences.
With the book’s launch in January, it has now ranked among the Top 10 titles in three of Amazon’s categories – Positive Psychology, Emotions & Mental Health, and Adult & Continuing Education.
Designed for general readers, business leaders, educators, clinicians and scholars, Choosing Emotions combines reference-style organization with quotations and observations from thinkers including Plato, Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Immanuel Kant, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Niels Bohr, Noam Chomsky and contemporary psychologists and neuroscientists.
“Emotions represent the ‘Rosetta Stone’ of human experience — the one language that translates across fields, cultures and traditions,” Johnston said.
Choosing Emotions: Thinking with Your Head and Acting with Your Heart
Publisher: Western Gold Publishing
ISBN-13: 979-8218843861 Available from https://www.amazon.com/
