Within the depth-psychology corpus, crying occupies a remarkably plural theoretical space, examined simultaneously as biological signal, grief behavior, mythological motif, developmental phenomenon, and somatic event. Biologically oriented voices—Lench drawing on ethological theory, Panksepp from affective neuroscience, Fogel from embodied self-awareness—converge on crying as an evolutionarily shaped communication that engages the autonomic nervous system, elicits altruistic responses from observers, and is governed by competing pressures of social cost and physiological necessity. Fogel’s notion of the ‘good cry’ as a parasympathetic activation restoring homeostasis stands in productive tension with Burnett’s skeptical personal testimony that crying need not produce relief. Clinically, Worden frames tears as potential vehicles of toxic emotional discharge in grief, while Klein’s infant observations situate unheard crying at the origin of persecutory anxiety. From a Jungian-mythological perspective, Estes reads tears as a substance possessing sacred and purifying properties in world mythology—healing wounds, repelling demons, calling spirits. Panksepp’s neurobiological work establishes the PANIC system and endogenous opioids as the neurochemical substrate for separation distress vocalizations across species, linking human crying to phylogenetically ancient attachment circuitry. Lench’s ethological framework—understanding weeping as ritualized signal with differential costs for social rank and sex—adds evolutionary-sociological nuance. The term thus serves as a crossroads between soma and psyche, individual and relational, biological adaptation and cultural ritual.
A ‘good’ cry is connected deeply to the interoceptive sensations of warm tears, blurry vision, a sense of vulnerability, feelings of relief, and the emotions mentioned in the quote above.
Fogel theorizes the ‘good cry’ as an embodied parasympathetic event that activates homeostatic systems and restores optimal autonomic function through interoceptive engagement.
, Body Sense: The Science and Practice of Embodied Self-Awareness, 2009thesis
Tears, in mythos, melt the icy heart… All through history, tears have done three works: called the spirits to one’s side, repelled those who would muffle and bind the simple soul, and healed the injuries of poor bargains made by humans.
Estes reads crying in mythological tradition as a sacred, triple-functioned act: invoking protective forces, repelling harmful ones, and healing psychic wounds.
, Women Who Run With the Wolves Myths and Stories of the Wild, 2017thesis
Physiologists distinguish three types of tears: basal, reflex, and psychic (Frey, 1985)… Psychic tears are produced when we experience strong emotions.
Lench situates emotional weeping within a physiological taxonomy, distinguishing psychic tears as the specific signal of grief and other intense affective states.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018thesis
Stress causes chemical imbalances in the body, and some researchers believe that tears remove toxic substances and help reestablish homeostasis… ‘Grief That Has No Vent in Tears Makes Other Organs Weep.’
Worden presents crying as a potentially detoxifying somatic process in grief, and cautions that suppressed crying may be somatized as bodily symptom.
, Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy A Handbook for the, 2018thesis
It is a common assertion that human females are prone to cry more than males. There may be some neurobiological truth to this stereotype… administration of testosterone diminishes crying in young animals.
Panksepp grounds sex differences in crying frequency in the neurobiological sensitivity of the PANIC system, with testosterone modulating separation-distress vocalization.
, Affective Neuroscience The Foundations of Human and Animal, 1998thesis
The major chemistries that have been found to activate crying in young animals are CRF, certain types of glutamate receptor stimulants… All three of these agents can turn on the crying response, even if animals are housed with social companions.
Panksepp identifies the neurochemical triggers of the crying response—CRF, glutamate—establishing an affective neuroscience basis for separation distress vocalization independent of social context.
, Affective Neuroscience The Foundations of Human and Animal, 1998thesis
At birth, crying is most frequent in the absence of a caregiver, suggesting that the main purpose of infant crying is to maintain infant-caregiver contact… by 2 years of age, crying is maximum in the presence of a caregiver, suggesting that the main purpose of toddler crying is to promote caregiver investment.
Lench charts a developmental shift in the function of crying from proximity-maintenance to resource-acquisition, reflecting the child’s growing capacity for social manipulation.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018thesis
When we encounter someone crying, feelings of compassion or sympathy encourage us to offer assistance (or terminate aggression). Consistent with an ethological signal, expressions of grief have a marked impact on the thoughts, feelings, and actions of those who witness them.
Lench frames crying as an ethological signal that reliably elicits compassionate and altruistic responses in observers, functioning as a motivational amplifier within social groups.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018thesis
The principal cost of weeping is the loss of social status. The principal benefit of weeping is the increased likelihood of terminating aggression and/or the increased likelihood of receiving altruistic assistance.
Lench frames weeping in a cost-benefit evolutionary analysis, where social status loss and altruistic gain interact differentially across sex and rank.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018supporting
There are biologically prepared tendencies to weep under certain circumstances and biologically prepared tendencies for observers to respond in certain ways toward weeping individuals. There is a notable degree of automaticity to these behaviors.
Lench synthesizes anatomical, physiological, and social evidence to argue that crying constitutes an evolved signal with biologically prepared, largely automatic sender and receiver behaviors.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018supporting
The pharyngeal constriction also leads to phonetic instability where the voice chaotically switches back and forth between modal and falsetto phonation. This results in a highly distinctive ‘cracking’ or ‘breaking’ voice, which—even more than whimpering or wailing—is the quintessential sound of weeping.
Lench provides acoustic analysis of the vocalization components of crying, identifying the breaking voice produced by pharyngeal constriction as the most diagnostically distinctive element.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018supporting
We propose an evolutionary-historical scenario of the process of ritualization by which crying or weeping arose as a signal among Homo sapiens… Dealing with tissue damage and fighting pathogens was the main function of pro-inflammatory cytokines.
Lench proposes that human weeping evolved through ritualization of ancient immune stress responses, with pro-inflammatory cytokines as the phylogenetic substrate.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018supporting
Despite the fact that weeping appears to be largely involuntary, since weeping incurs a social cost, if the individual assesses the social cost… humans have a greater capacity for self-control.
Lench examines executive control over crying, noting that frontal inhibitory systems can suppress an otherwise compelling involuntary behavior when social costs are assessed.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018supporting
She woke and cried for her mother, but her crying was not heard… the baby had obviously been crying for a long time, her face was bathed in tears, and her ordinarily plaintive cry had turned into uncontrollable screaming.
Klein uses an infant case observation to illustrate how unanswered crying escalates into persecutory terror, linking the unheard cry to the emergence of the bad (persecuting) mother imago.
, Envy and Gratitude and Other Works 1946-1963, 1957supporting
When I did cry, contrary to what is often asserted, I didn’t feel much better. I was as upset as before, but now with wet, red eyes and a leaking nose.
Burnett offers a counter-testimonial to catharsis theories of crying, questioning the assumption that the physical act of weeping reliably produces emotional relief.
, The emotional brain lost and found in the science of, 2023supporting
In many cultures people experience tears of joy, such as those produced by beauty pageant winners… These and other cultural behaviors raise challenges for any theory that purports any innate foundation for weeping behaviors.
Lench acknowledges cross-cultural variability in crying contexts—including tears of joy and ritualized weeping—as a challenge to purely innate or universal accounts.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018supporting
She is waiting for the signal of deep feeling, that one tear that says, ‘I admit the wound.’ This admission feeds the Life/Death/Life nature, causes the bond to be made and the deep knowing in a man to begin.
Estes reframes a single tear as the decisive psychic gesture of wound-admission that activates depth of relational bonding and initiates inner healing.
, Women Who Run With the Wolves Myths and Stories of the Wild, 2017supporting
The vocalizing can vary from no sound at all to quiet whimpering, moaning, crying, or loud wailing… grief is characterized by a strongly negative affective state. Grief vies with physical pain for the most negatively valenced affect.
Lench establishes the phenomenological and expressive continuum of grief-related crying, from incipient tears to full wailing, situating it as among the most negatively valenced human experiences.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018supporting
The most conspicuous visual feature of weeping is the proliferation of tears… independent limbic activation of lacrimal sacs implies an anatomical connection, which in turn suggests a genetic (therefore innate) basis for psychic tears.
Lench argues for a genetic and anatomical basis for psychic tears through limbic-lacrimal connectivity, supporting the claim that weeping is an evolved rather than purely learned signal.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018supporting
He loses himself. He cries out. In this narcissistic image, paradisaical and self-enclosed, everything is fine—and silly and useless—until one’s play with oneself rolls out of bounds, beyond one’s own reach.
Berry uses a mythological vignette of Perseus crying out to illustrate the archetypal moment when narcissistic self-enclosure is shattered by encounter with the world beyond the self.
, Echo’s Subtle Body: Contributions to an Archetypal Psychology, 1982aside