Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of TearsThis provocative and indispensable book provides a natural and cultural history of our most mysterious and complex human function: our ability to shed tears. All humans, and only humans, weep. Tears are sometimes considered pleasurable, sometimes dangerous, mysterious, deceptive, or profound. Tears of happiness, tears of joy, the proud tears of a parent, tears of mourning, tears of laughter, tears of defeat --what do they have in common? Why is it that at times of victory, success, love, reunion, and celebration the outward signs of our emotions are identical to those of our most profound experiences of loss? Why We Cry looks at the many different ways people have understood weeping, from the earliest known representation of tears in the fourteenth century B.C. through the latest neurophysiological research. Despite our most common romantic assumptions, what this brilliant book tells us is that tears are never pure, they are never simple. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 26
Page 13
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 18
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 68
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 69
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 70
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Contents
List of Illustrations | 13 |
Why Tears? | 17 |
Tears of Pleasure Tears of Grace and the Weeping Hero | 31 |
The Crying Body | 67 |
The Psychology of Tears | 115 |
Men and Women Infants and Children | 151 |
Cultures of Mourning | 193 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
activity adults amygdala anthropologists Antonio Damasio argued audience baby behavior bodily body brain catharsis cathartic cause century ceremonies child cognitive cried crier Cry-Baby culture Damasio David Hume Kennerly dead death depression Descartes described desire effect emotional experience emotional expression emotional tears empathy eyes fact fear feel film Freud funeral grief heart hormones human idea infant crying instance kind lacrimal glands lamentation laugh limbic system male mother mourning muscles nervous system novel Odysseus one's pain parasympathetic parasympathetic nervous system parents passions patients philosopher Phineas Gage physiological pleasure professional mourners prolactin psychology rational researchers response rituals role Sartre says scene screaming sense sentimental sexual shed simply sincerity Sjögren's syndrome sobbing social sometimes sorrow soul stoicism stop crying story suggests sympathetic nervous system theory therapy things thinking tion tional told Tomkins Translated wailing weeping weepy wept woman women writes wrote York