Along this line I've always added a nontraditional force to the
conceptual toolbox with which I equip my students. I call it the
Pauli force, and it is always repulsive. It is the force exerted
by the 1s electrons in lithium which repels the next electron to
join the party. It is quite a natural extension of the force
concept to the realm in which we all know it is not entirely
appropriate, but it seems to aid their conceptual grasp. I, too,
find "attraction" and "repulsion" unsatisfying terms to describe
an interaction which is responsible both for keeping the neutron
together and for disrupting it.
I have a 42 year old textbook which refers to "The Weak-
interaction paradox for Low-lying States." It uses the language
I can readily understand. I won't quote it here, but those among
you fortunate enough to own "The Atomic Nucleus" by Robley Evans
will be able to look it up. I will tell you that some of my
younger colleagues to whom I have shown the book would like to
own one themselves. They occasionally borrow it. (It was my text
when I took undergrad nuclear physics from Alvarez in 1956-57.)