I know this might seem like a stupid question, but I’m curious if anyone has ever studied whether good verbal or written expression correlates with great personal well-being (be it happiness, health, etc., but not necessarily financial)
I’m not talking about the difference between having no expressive capacity and being a poet laureate, but more along the lines of the difference between a well-educated person who nonetheless doesn’t read or write for pleasure and, on the other hand, someone equally well educated who enjoys literature, language, writing, etc.
I can think of a number of instances where, for instance, someone who lacks a certain level of expressive capacity not being able to adequately describe a pain he is feeling when talking to his doctor.
I’m not sure that this pans out in real life, but I’m curious if it’s been studied.
I’d imagine that people who express themselves would have a source of happiness that someone who doesn’t would have, but I doubt that the expression needs to be written or verbal. Painting, for example, would work just as well.
That’s actually one of the first things I thought, but I’m not necessarily talking about a literary genius, just someone who practices a little linguistic gymnastics or takes pleasure reading fiction/poetry as compared to someone with a similar educational level who doesn’t like to read.
There are people who can be described as “alexithymic”, a condition which makes it hard to match the physical sensations associated with emotions with the words that connote emotion. For instance, they may know that they feel bad about something, but it’s not until they see tears coming out of their eyes that they recognize they’re sad.
Because it’s hard for them to talk about their emotions, they are prone to self-injury and psychosomatic disorders.
But this is probably due to neurobiological deficits more than it has to do with having a good vocabulary, though.