A severe emotional injury refers to an injury where a reasonable person, normally constituted, would be unable to adequately cope with the mental stress engendered by the circumstances of the case.
The following is an example of a case law on severe emotional injury:
In an action for serious or severe emotional injury, plaintiff must provide expert testimony. In order to guard against trivial or fraudulent actions, the law ought to provide a recovery only for serious or severe emotional injury. [Coleman v. Wilwayco, 2006 Tenn. App. LEXIS 34 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2006)].