Posted by finelinebob on May 11, 2004, at 21:43:10
In reply to Re: Getting worse before getting better in therapy, posted by terrics on May 11, 2004, at 16:12:14
>Does anyone know the purpose of crying? Also, why do some people cry easly and others like Tiny rarely cry. Terrics
I had to Google this. Looks like the short answer to your first question is "no". This link (Dr. Universe!) had some interesting info: http://www.wsu.edu/DrUniverse/cry.html
A few points from Dr. Universe:
* Babies cry to communicate. For very young babies, crying is about their only effect means of communicating.
* So, we may learn very early that crying is a good way to communicate distress.
* There are three kinds of tears: lachrymal (for keeping the eye wet), reflex (onions and pokes in the eye) and EMOTIONAL tears. Emotional tears differ from the other two types in composition -- they contain 20-25% more proteins and hormones. No one really knows why.
* one theory wrt why we evolved the ability to cry says that it is a byproduct of another process (when we're distressed, a number of things happen to the body processes that are regulated automatically -- breathing, heart rate, adrenaline levels, etc). Again, we learn to associate crying with certain stimuli.Now, I also checked with the ultimate scientific authority on the web -- Dr. Science -- and he has not answered any basic question on why we cry. He did, however, provide this answer as to why we cry when we cut onions:
"You cry because onions are telepathic vegetables. As you slice the onion it sends out thought waves, starting with "Don't you feel guilty about cutting up this onion?" and progressing to "Your mouth is going to smell like a cesspool." The evolution of telepathic powers has protected the onion as a species. The only animals that eat onions are humans, who seem to be telepathically insensitive. In recent intelligence tests, onions placed right between dolphins and real estate agents. If you feel guilty about eating onions, comfort yourself with the knowledge that if they could, onions would not hesitate to eat you."
hth,
flb
poster:finelinebob
thread:343209
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040503/msgs/345947.html