Seeing Through Tears

Judith Kay Nelson Ph.D.is a psychotherapist, teacher and writer. She has written extensively about crying and attachment and has lectured on this topic to professional and general audiences in the United States and Europe. She teaches clinical theory at the California Institute for Clinical Social Work and maintains a private practice in Berkeley, California.

Seeing Through Tears is a groundbreaking examination of crying behavior and the meaning behind our tears. Drawing from attachment theory and her own original research, Judith Nelson presents an exciting new view of crying as a part of our inborn equipment for establishing and maintaining emotional connections. In a comprehensive look at crying through the life cycle, this insightful volume presents a novel theoretical framework before offering useful and practical advice for dealing with this most fundamental of human behaviors.

Introduction. Part I: A Theory of Crying. There is More to Crying than Meets the Eye. The Circle of Tears: Attachment, Loss, Crying, Caregiving and Re-attachment. Protest, Despair and Detachment: A Classification of Crying. Crying at the Source: The First Twelve Months. Crying is for Broken Legs and Lost Friends: Crying in Childhood. Crying Lessons and Caregiving Responses: The Social View. Part II: The Clinical Assessment of Crying. Healthy Adult Crying and Inhibited Crying (and Healthy Adult Caregiving). Symptomatic Adult Crying and Inhibited Crying (and Symptomatic Adult Caregiving.) Tears as Body Language. Part III: Crying and Inhibited Crying in the Therapeutic Relationship. Crying in the Clinical Hour. How Therapists Deal with Crying and Caregiving (Including their Own). Part IV: Attachment and Caregiving: Beyond the Personal. Transcendent Tears. Bibliography. Index.