Emotions · Clusters
Anticipatory
Structural — these share a form (a temporal direction, a stance toward the world, a relationship between self and object).
Emotions whose object is a future that hasn't arrived. They differ by whether the unknown is registered as opportunity or threat, and by whether the body's signal is mobilization or paralysis. Kierkegaard's name for anxiety — *the dizziness of freedom* — sits across this whole cluster: the future opens, and the self must lean toward or away.
Core
Sits squarely in this cluster
Hope
Anticipation registered as opportunity. Forward-leaning, mobilizing; carries an implicit reach toward the future as good.
Anxiety
Anticipation without a specific object. The body braces; the threat is unspecified. Differs from fear in this objectless quality.
Fear
Anticipation with a specific object. Mobilizes flight or defense. The threat is named.
Excitement
Hope's somatic register. The body says yes to the approaching future before the mind has counted reasons.
Adjacent
Brushes against this cluster but lives more centrally elsewhere