"Why do we cry? How do we cry? What does it mean?" These are the questions that Ray D'Arcy had for Heather Christle, author of The Crying Book, when she was on air on RTÉ Radio 1.
Of all the things in the world to write about, Christle said she chose the science and art of crying because it was something that truly fascinated her. It was something she did often, throughout different periods of her life, in different places, and for different reasons.
Due to her history of depression, crying became a consistent activity in the young woman's life, but one that she really knew very little about. A truly universal human experience, Heather decided to find out how her crying habits compared to others and how she could better her future tearful moments.
"I learned from my research, from the International Study of Adult Crying, that it's best to cry with just one other person there so, now that I know that, I aim for it whenever possible," she told Ray.
Not only did Christle study why we cry but she found out what we cry. We don't mean sad tears or happy tears, but the actual make-up of a tear and how some tears can differ. During her research, the author discovered that there are three types of tears - basal, irritant, and psychogenic.
"The three different kinds of tears are basal tears, which are always there, they lubricate your eyes and prevent them from drying out. Then there are irritant tears, which you shed when you have a speck of dust in your eye or are cutting onions. Then there are psychogenic or emotional tears, they're the tears that we shed for all kinds of emotional reasons - joy, frustration, sorrow."
Interestingly, psychogenic (emotional) tears have a different chemical composition than the other two types of tears: "They're thicker, they have more protein and this slows down the rate in which they fall," she explains.
"If they fall more slowly, they're on your face for longer and there's a greater chance that somebody else is going to see them and notice them and respond. Emotional tears really are a social signal."
Although emotional tears are meant to be seen - a social sign for comfort - human beings are not always equipped to offer a shoulder to cry on, especially if it happens in public or seemingly out of nowhere.
To help give some guidance, Heather shared her theory about how people should respond to seeing someone cry depending on whether they're in or near the car...
"If they're in the car, you should let them be. The car is a private crying area. Many of us have the experience of holding ourselves together until we get to the car and then, once we're in the car, we fall apart. But, if you see someone crying near a car, then you should go and offer your help."
When it comes to language and the culture of crying, Ray was quick to point out the Irish origins of the word 'keening' (ag caoineadh), to the American author.
"We have a tradition here where people are waked," explained Ray. "When people die, they are laid out in their house and, back in the day, there would have been a group of keeners and they would have been nearly professional cryers who would come to mourn the death of the person."
To hear about Shirley Temple's ability to cry on demand, and the Japanese hotels offering visitors a place to stay where they can be comforted by a handsome man, listen back to the interview below:
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