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Crying
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run down a boy's face after his hot dog falls to the ground.]]
The term crying (pronounced from Middle English crien or Old French crier ) commonly refers to the act of shedding tears as a response to an emotional state in humans. The act of crying has been defined as "a complex secretomotor phenomenon
characterized by the shedding of tears from the lacrimal apparatus, without any irritation
of the ocular structures".
A neuronal connection between the tear duct and the areas of the human brain involved with emotion was established.
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Encyclopedia
run down a boy's face after his hot dog falls to the ground.]]
The term crying (pronounced from Middle English crien or Old French crier ) commonly refers to the act of shedding tears as a response to an emotional state in humans. The act of crying has been defined as "a complex secretomotor phenomenon
characterized by the shedding of tears from the lacrimal apparatus, without any irritation
of the ocular structures".
A neuronal connection between the tear duct and the areas of the human brain involved with emotion was established. No other animals are thought to produce tears in response to emotional states, although this is disputed by some scientists.
According to a study of over 300 adults, on average, men cry once every month, and women cry at least five times per month, especially before and during the menstrual cycle, when crying can increase up to 5 times the normal rate, often without obvious reasons (such as depression or sadness). In many cultures, it is more socially acceptable for women and children to cry than with men.
Tears produced during emotional crying have a chemical composition which differs from other types of tear: they contain significantly greater quantities of hormones prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, Leu-enkephalin
and the elements potassium and manganese.
Function
The question of the function or origin of emotional tears remains open.
Theories range from the simple, such as response to inflicted pain, to the more complex, including nonverbal communication in order to elicit "helping" behaviour from others.
In Hippocratic and medieval medicine, tears were associated with the bodily humours, and crying was seen as purgation of excess humours from the brain.
William James thought of emotions as reflexes prior to rational thought, believing that the physiological response, as if to stress or irritation, is a precondition to cognitively becoming aware of emotions such as fear or anger.
William H. Frey II, a biochemist at the University of Minnesota, proposed that people feel "better" after crying, due to the elimination of hormones associated with stress, specifically adrenocorticotropic hormone. This, paired with increased mucosal secretion during crying, could lead to a theory that crying is a mechanism developed in humans to dispose of this stress hormone when levels grow too high.
Recent psychological theories of crying emphasize its relationship to the experience of perceived helplessness. From this perspective, an underlying experience of helplessness can usually explain why people cry; for example, a person may cry after receiving surprisingly happy news, ostensibly because the person feels powerless or unable to influence what is happening.
Disorders related to crying
Further reading
- William H. Frey, Muriel Langseth (1985), Crying: The Mystery of Tears . Minneapolis. Winston Press.
- Lutz, Tom (1999) Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears. New York. W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-04756-3.
- Walter, Chip Why do we cry?. Scientific American Mind Dec 2006, Vol. 17 Issue 6; p. 44.
External links
- - Damian Corless examines the taboo that still surrounds public crying, Irish Independent, August 8 2008
- by John-Paul Flintoff, The Age, 30 August 2003.
- by Gina Stepp, Vision Media, 14 January 2009.
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