Why Humans Like To Cry

Subtitled 'tragedy, evolution and the brain' this is a fascinating cultural and neurological study about how humans are unique in shedding tears of sorrow, especially in the context of listening to music or attending the theatre (I am just listening to Bach's Christmas Oratario as I check this). The context of the book is set by Friedrich Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy, with its discussion of the Apollonian and Dionysian aspects of existence; the latter is associated with the theme of the book, also related to the functioning of the right hemisphere (Iain McGilchrist is quoted in this respect). The main sources of the book are watching and discussing Greek tragedy, listening to music (especially opera) and a lifetime study of neuroscience. The book covers the nature of crying, especially its neuroanatomy and neurophysiology (including the emotions more generally), then how this capacity has arisen in the course of evolution and within the cultural context of tragedy; also more broadly through the development of empathy, the capacity to love and a corresponding greater sense of loss – life, love and death and their expression in the arts.