Why Only Humans Weep: Unravelling the Mysteries of Tears

Crying has fascinated mankind for millenia. Since ancient times, we have known that emotional tears are a unique human characteristic. Unsurprisingly, over hundreds of years, scholars from different backgrounds have speculated about the origin and functions of human tears. According to Charles Darwin, tears fulfilled no adaptive function. And yet, this seems in sharp contrast to statements in the popular media about the significance of crying. Crying is thought to bring relief and is considered healthy - and withholding tears unhealthy. In addition, tears have been said to inhibit aggression in assaulters and to promote social bonding. Perhaps that could explain why tears have been so important in our evolution. Ad Vingerhoets is one of the few scientists in the world to have studied crying. He examines in Why only humans weep which claims about crying are scientifically tenable - which are fact and which are fiction? Though a psychologist, he doesn't just restrict himself to the current psychological literature, but also explores work in evolutionary biology, neurosciences, theology, art, history, and anthropology to provide an integrated perspective on this complex phenomenon. Written throughout in an academically accessible style, this book is groundbreaking in contributing to a modern scientific understanding of crying. It will have broad appeal to psychologists, psychiatrists, philosophers, biologists, and anthropologists.

Table of Contents:
1: Why Only Humans Weep: Introduction to the theme 2: The Human Nature of Crying 3: Crying and Adaptation: The hardware 4: Crying over the Lifespan 5: The Antecedents and Context of Crying 6: The Intra-individual Effects of Crying 7: The Social Effects of Tears 8: Culture and Crying 9: Why Some People Cry More Often than Others 10: Male and Female Tears 11: Crying and Health 12: Too many tears... 13: A Cultural Historical Perspective of Tears 14: Epilogue

About the Author :
Dr. Ad Vingerhoets is Professor of Clinical Psychology at Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands. He published over 300 articles on stress, emotions, and quality of life in scientific journals and co-authored/edited 18 books. His work on phenomena as crying, homesickness, sentiments, and 'leisure sickness' aroused much interest in the (inter)national popular media.

Review :
`This is a wonderful book. It offers a new understanding of the meaning of tears. Most impressive is its ability to draw together ideas that span diverse fields and cover centuries of musings about crying. Early in the book the author offers a comprehensive model of adult crying. He then uses the model as a framework to gather the most recent scientific findings. By the book's end I found myself marvelling at the complexity of crying behaviour and in no doubt of the centrality of tears to human experience.'' Dr Tom Whelan, School of Psychology, ACU Australian Catholic University, Australia `Tears still are a poorly understood phenomenon among emotional phenomena, because humans are the only species who produce tears when experiencing certain emotions. This volume provides important contributions towards a better insight. It discusses all relevant problems and issues, in a more thorough way than has ever been done previously, it demonstrates the failures of some generally accepted suppositions, and comes up with some important first steps towards a better understanding of weeping. 'Why only humans weep' is rich and interesting reading, I have learned a lot from reading it.' Nico H. Frijda, author of The Emotions `For too many years the study of facial behavior has been almost exclusively focused on facial expressions. But the face is a complex canvas against which, besides expressions, many different behaviors unfold: opening and closing orifices, muscular contortions, gaze, sounds, physical, contacts, approach-avoidance displacements and so on. Ad Vingerhoets book is a wonderful invitation to the study of one of the most dramatic, if not the most dramatic, facial behaviors: crying. Researchers, practitioners and students will enjoy an extremely well-structured, entertaining and complete guide to the conceptual and empirical advances in the study of crying. As Vingerhoets makes clear, understanding crying is definitely a crucial challenge on the path to understanding facial behavior and, by extension, human nature. This book is an important contribution to such an endeavour.' Professor Jose-Miguel Fernandez-Dols, Facultad de Psicologia, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain `The highly visible waterworks that humans put on display present a puzzle. Why do we need a signal that other primates do without, and what exactly is its meaning? Densely packed with the latest research on weeping, this book is a must read for anyone interested in the topic.' Frans de Waal, C. H. Candler Professor and Director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes Primate Center, USA, and author of The Age of Empathy