Hello all. I'm writing a fictional book about the end of the world, how humanity sucks, bla bla bla. You get the whole deal. A concept I'll be using in my book is how any ordinary, good person can go bad, and why they do. The reason many people become evil or do this or do that is because they are confronted with a situation that evokes in them a certain pain. When I say pain, I mean emotional pain, negative emotions. I don't mean something vague as "hate" or "sadness". I mean "fear", "empathy", "guilt" and the such. I am looking for the roots of one's pain. Why might someone want revenge? Simple. They lost someone. Why might someone want to fulfill some goal? Simple. They feel guilty. I've looked through such articles like the List of emotions. For certain reasons, I am looking for six different reasons why someone would feel pain. I have found the following: Ego - bad self-esteem / hurt pride / jealousy / etc Fear - self explanatory Loss - maybe death of loved one Guilt - self explanatory Loneliness - self explanatory Empathy - feeling others pain My question to you, is this fullproof? Think of any reason why someone might feel an emotional pain and see if it falls into what I've described.
I'm not really sure what you're asking us, or if you're just wanting to point out the 6 causes of emotional pain. Anyway, there's also genetics, plain and simple.
Loss can also be a loss of something immaterial/intangible - loss of a potential future outcome. This often results in hopelessness and depression - an expression of emotional pain. Poverty can also be a source of pain. When I say poverty though I don't strictly mean financial poverty, but in the larger more metaphysical sense of lack of options. When people feel trapped they feel emotional pain. I guess this is a loss - not of what one had, but of what one could have . . . I'll have to think on this.
I'm with Raych. I think betrayal can be an extremely intense emotional pain. Also, while this could come under ego, I think failure is also a source of emotional pain. It doesn't have to be an ego related failure...
Might I also suggest watching "Gigli" with Ben Affleck and Jennfier Lopez, I can still feel the emotional pain to this day from watching that movie.
This all seems like something YOU, the writer, should be able to call into your story. Depending on others for emotional responses doesn't sound very authentic to me. Just one man's opinion.
