emotional literacy

The British used to be known as a reserved unemotional nation, people who never reveal their inner feelings, let alone in public. One interesting phrase “emotional literacy” is taken by a lot of writers in Britain terribly seriously. And there was this great outburst to how princess Di’s death changed the way Britain behaved, and the British is becoming an emotionally literate nation. Obviously, the British style is no longer the stiff upper lip, and that’s gone and it’s probably a good thing. Many people have, not only in Britain, but in other places where they speak English – America, Australia, New Zealand there has been the tendency to be eloquent about what people think, about what they do, but to be very very tongue-tied about how they feel. So ‘to be emotionally literate’ means that they are at last able to say “I feel angry”, “I feel sad”, “I feel happy”, which is a very healthy and human thing to feel. This emotional literacy maybe good, but it, certainly, wasn’t part of the traditional image of Britain.

This emotional openness idea is not naturally English. It came from America. Notably, from the west coast of America. There is something about the northwest. Nick Cohen, a journalist who writes for The Observer newspaper about some of the phrases used in the media to try to define these new British attitudes, and Claire Reyner, a broadcaster and a writer and also Britain’s favorite agony aunt, have used another much older phrase to describe the reserve, the lack of emotion, that used to be associated with the British. That phrase is “stiff upper lip”, as in “try to keep a stiff upper lip” and it meant control your feelings at all costs. All this talk of emotional literacy and the end of ‘stiff upper lip’ first arouse at the time of princess Diana’s death in 1997. It was then that we saw thousands of members of the public openly showing their feelings.
We all have grief in our lives, we all have bereavements to cope with, and many people find it very