The project focuses on the conditions that enable language about the subject’s own emotions on the one hand, and language about other people’s emotions on the other. The supposition is that the conditions differ between the two cases.

This may have two consequences: (1) that the reported emotions are constituted in different ways; (2) that the epistemological possibilities and hence the possibilities of truth differ between the two cases.

The sciences, especially psychology, employ a methodological framework for studying the relationship between the researcher and the interviewee. The interviewed subject, however, has no methodological means of assessing her relationship to her own emotions, experiences and verbal descriptions.

What is the relationship between scientific research on others’ emotions and the personal experience and verbal description of one’s own emotions? Does the scientific language, which is used by researchers to describe other people’s psyches, have the same meaning and truth value as the language used by the interviewed subject to report her own emotions?

If this is not the case: What are the consequences for the epistemological evaluation of self-reported data, especially data on persons interviewed by researchers?