ABSTRACT
Among both scientists and the lay public, crying, or more specifically, the shedding of emotional tears, is often assumed to result in some form of tension-reduction or emotional catharsis. Catharsis is a term derived from the Greek word katharsis, meaning “purification,” and a related word meaning “to cleanse and purify” (Jackson, 1994) and the idea is that, by crying, one may effectively purge oneself of negative affect. Standing behind this idea is another, namely, that not crying when it is called for may result in ill-health because the emotions that we have failed to release have the power to essentially poison our bodies, resulting in the formation of a variety of physical and psychological symptoms (see Groen, 1957).
