Why Naming an Emotion Can Quiet It Down

When an emotion surges, people often tell themselves to stop thinking about it. Suppression is not always effective. A different approach is to identify the feeling more precisely. “I feel terrible” is still vague; it may be anger, fear, shame, or a sense of having been insulted. Psychology calls this affect labelling.

In a 2007 brain-imaging study, people viewing emotional faces showed lower amygdala activity and higher right ventrolateral prefrontal activity when they named the emotion rather than identified the person’s gender. A later review concluded that affect labelling may regulate subjective experience, physiological responses and behaviour, although its effect size and the conditions under which it works in everyday life remain open questions.

Words do not erase emotion. They organise a mixture of bodily sensations, circumstances and expectations into a more definite object. Language places a constraint on an otherwise diffuse state, giving attention and action somewhere to go. “I cannot cope with anything” closes off the whole world. “I am worried that this situation is slipping beyond my control” leaves a particular part that can still be handled.

Naming is not a universal remedy. An inaccurate label, or repeatedly analysing why one feels this way, can turn into rumination. A practical first step is to suspend judgement and describe the emotion one degree more precisely than before. For a broader account of how language participates in shaping experience, see https://sustenesis.com/

Research basis
Lieberman et al., 2007, Psychological Science: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01916.x
Torre and Lieberman, 2018, Emotion Review: https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073917742706