Proto-emotion
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An impression that could evolve into an emotion in the course of personality development. countable, uncountable
"Wiley argues that cognitive and emotional theories of the self are partially correct and complementary, that “the self is constituted in a cognitively reflexive manner, but in addition it is powered by a kind of emotion, itself also reflexive” (1994, p. 114). In this regard, he contends that “the James-Cooley self-feeling, particularly at its core, is not an emotion in the ordinary sense but rather an energy or force (or ‘proto-emotion’), similar to Durkheim’s semiotic solidarity."
Example
More examples"Wiley argues that cognitive and emotional theories of the self are partially correct and complementary, that “the self is constituted in a cognitively reflexive manner, but in addition it is powered by a kind of emotion, itself also reflexive” (1994, p. 114). In this regard, he contends that “the James-Cooley self-feeling, particularly at its core, is not an emotion in the ordinary sense but rather an energy or force (or ‘proto-emotion’), similar to Durkheim’s semiotic solidarity."
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.