7 Types Of Crying - Self-development, Society

Many thinkers, starting with Aristotle, have tried to understand the meaning of the human cry. In this article, I have mixed philosophy and psychology. This is my personal experiment, I hope you will treat it with understanding

I admit there are more than seven types of crying. Each of you has the right to expand this list. Each type of cry has its own specific meaning and each has its own purpose. Sometimes the meaning is unconscious.

1. Transformation

Aristotle wrote about the cathartic cry and described it as the deepest type of cry. This type often leads to catharsis, personality transformation or new ideas.

People can fall into transformational tears when they attend a funeral, watch a sad movie, or experience a tragic event such as the death of a loved one. Tears become deep sobs that cannot be controlled and can last for a long time, sometimes several days in a row.

After going through this process, a person receives new memories of the past, new views on life. Psychotherapy often causes clients to cry like this

2. Joy

This crying can happen for at least two reasons:

• A person feels joy or happiness that he has not felt for a long time. Winning the lottery or receiving an award that was not expected. Joy evokes an emotional response that is expressed in tears.
• People experience the kind of happiness (feeling of care) that they lacked in the past. Then tears are sadness due to the realization that it did not take place before.

3. Anger

If you have ever heard a child cry in anger, you will immediately understand what I am talking about. When babies don't get what they want, their crying becomes more angry and louder. An angry cry is intended to indicate that the child needs your attention right now!

Adults can get angry too, and their goal is the same: for you (or the world) to know about something important that they cannot get

4. Pain

Sometimes people injure themselves and this causes a lot of pain. This pain is so acute that it makes you cry. Even the most brutal men, like boxers, will cry when the pain is great enough.

In some people, crying may have to do with a desire for empathy. In other cases, it is simply a reflex action of the body in response to severe pain

5. Manipulation

Such crying is sometimes called "crocodile tears". This is done in order to make someone feel guilty or empathic.

One of my acquaintances told me that whenever he saw his father grab the belt, he immediately began to cry.

The purpose of such crying is the desire to change the course of the situation in your favor

The husband may not want to visit his wife's relatives, and the wife may cry to make the husband feel guilty that he does not love his relatives. Or the daughter can make a remark to the mother, and now the woman is crying: "You say that to hurt me" or "You don't love me at all."

6. Stress relief

Here I cannot but admire once again the female upbringing. This is the kind of crying that women have permission - both internally and socially. And this is wonderful, because in such a situation, for example, I would look strange and get an unpleasant label. Men, unfortunately, are more reserved in their emotions.

The person experiences prolonged stress (the work of field managers is a great example). And then the following may happen: upon hearing the harmless remark “I have never noticed before, but your left eyebrow is lower than your right,” a person will suddenly cry.

There is no ulterior motive in this type of crying, it is just getting rid of the extra "burden"

7. Self-pity

Sometimes people sob because they feel sorry for themselves. A woman may hear about a friend who won the lottery and instead of being happy for her, she starts crying and feeling sorry for herself. Or an athlete can get injured and, being in bed, recovering, cries: "Why did this have to happen to me?"

Data from the German Society of Ophthalmology:

• The average adult male cries 6 to 17 times a year.
• The average adult woman cries 30 to 64 times a year.

• Men tend to cry for 2 to 4 minutes at a time.
• Women - about 6 minutes at a time.

There is no difference in how men and women cry, it is important not to restrain yourself and give yourself permission to release much-needed emotion.

Based on article: blogs.psychcentral.com/psychoanalysis-now/2018/05/7-kinds-of-crying-and-what-they-mean/

Author: Gerald Schoenewolf, Ph. D.

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