counteremotion

plural counteremotions

1. An emotion which acts in contrast or opposition to another emotion.

   The counteremotion of anger is serenity, that of fear relaxation.

   1996, Dolf Zillmann, “Sequential Dependencies in Emotional Experience and Behavior”, in Emotion: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, page 265

   2 more examples

   He began to feel [...] the elation of money coming his way, the self-congratulation that followed – because the gain was all down to his inspired decisions — and then the almost equal counteremotion of sickening anxiety: a fear that there was some aspect of the trade he hadn't covered, some twist that even he had not foreseen.

   2009, Sebastian Faulks, A Week in December

   An aggressor experiences a revulsion to hurting his victim, but the discomfort cannot last forever, and eventually a reassuring, energizing counteremotion resets his equilibrium to neutral.

   2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 670