PAIN, LAUGHTER AND WEEPING 337 



It is the common experience of every one to find that 

 during a period of intense activity or intense integra- 

 tion to activity, as in a great catastrophe or misfortune, 

 that the power to laugh or weep has disappeared. As 

 soon as the issue that causes the integration is deter- 

 mined the terror past or the doubt removed - 

 the whole being seems to dissolve in one tremendous 

 outburst of tears or laughter, with the result that the 

 organism is in part immediately relieved. 



With this key, we can understand why laughter and 

 crying are so closely associated, and so frequently 

 interchangeable under the same conditions ; why 

 either gives a sense of relief after stress ; and why 

 neither can come until the issue which has precipitated 

 the activation has been settled. We can understand 

 why an averted breach of the conventions, which would 

 have caused embarrassment, may excite laughter; 

 and why the recital of heroic deeds of a certain 

 type causes tears. 



Nowhere could this fact be more strikingly mani- 

 fested than in the scenes of desolation and wretched- 

 ness described by eyewitnesses of the physical and 

 psychic results wrought by the present War of Nations 

 in Europe. The characteristic of the people that most 

 impresses all chroniclers is the calm, the apathy of 

 those who have undergone physical injury or psychic 

 stress. In the midst of battle, no one weeps ; no one 

 laughs ; every one is integrated for muscular action, 

 for killing or escaping. The crushing of Belgium 

 caused no weeping until the refugees had reached a 

 safe haven. Then they wept abnormally. I saw 

 striking instances of this. 



