Crying Useful, Allport Asserts

Tears are necessary as a normal reaction to grief, Dr. Gordon W. Allport of the Social Relations department said last night in a discussion of "We Human Beings" over Station WCOP.

Allport cited the study of Dr. Erich Lindemann of the Massachusetts General Hospital after the Cocoanut Grove fire to illustrate that continued suppression of feelings often produces strain and tension in the individual personality. He added that such a state can develop into a complex of a serious order.

Prior to the discussion the story of a 55-year-old woman "too courageous to cry" was dramatized by students of local colleges to present the problem of "Why has mother become so abnormal lately?" Father Edward H. Nowian of Boston College joined Allport in analyzing the effects of no emotion on her personality.

The broadcast was the second in a series of transcribed features presented by the Lowell Institute under the auspices of Boston College, Boston University, Harvard, M.I.T., Northeastern, and Tufts.