Emotional Directionality Theory (EDT): A Unifying Psychological Framework

This paper proposes Emotional Directionality Theory (EDT), a unifying psychological framework arguing that every human emotion carries a directional orientation — inward toward the self or outward toward others. EDT unifies attachment theory, trauma psychology, affect regulation research, and psychopathy literature under a single structural principle. The framework identifies a suppression mechanism — emotional dormancy — analogous to dissociative identity disorder, and proposes a convergent paradox in which psychopathy and codependency, opposite directional extremes, arrive at identical relational dysfunction through opposite suppression mechanisms. All claims are grounded in existing empirical literature. The framework generates specific testable predictions and outlines a research agenda for empirical investigation.