"If you love someone, you don't hurt them": a comprehensive process analysis of a weeping event in therapy

Early theorists described physical diseases (e.g., asthma, ulcers) thought to be associated with the inhibition of weeping (e.g., Alexander 1950), and catharsis theories (Breuer and Freud 1895/1955; Koestler 1964) postulated that unexpressed emotion accumulated as in a tank, and then overflowed as tears when a threshold level was exceeded. From a more biological perspective, it has been suggested that stress produces toxic chemicals in the body that become concentrated in the lacrimal gland and are released through weeping, restoring homeostasis (Frey 1985). As a result of these theories, psychotherapists tend to believe weeping is healthy for clients and that it serves to decrease depression (Trezza et al. 1988). While laboratory studies have typically not supported these ideas (e.g., Labott and Martin 1987, 1988), no studies have been performed on weeping specifically in the context of psychotherapy.