Kay Carmichael – författare

What use are tears? What is their purpose? In this book the author argues that we underestimate the importance of this powerful means of communication. Tears are dismissed as a symbol of weakness when we should value them as a source of energy and creativity. In case histories, based on original research, she shows how, why, when and where human beings cry and the barriers placed in their way. By shaming people - particularly boy children and men - we also suppress human capacities to express tenderness and compassion for distress in ourselves and in others. That can affect our health, out relationships and our capacity to protest against injustice.

What use are tears? What is their purpose? In this book, the author argues that we underestimate the importance of this powerful means of communication. Tears are dismissed as a symbol of weakness when we should value them as a source of energy and creativity. In case histories, based on original research, she shows how, why, when and where human beings cry and the barriers placed in their way. By shaming people - particularly boy children and men - we also suppress human capacities to express tenderness and compassion for distress in ourselves and in others. Than can affect our health, our relationships and our capacity to protest against injustice.

Originally published in 2003. Western attitudes to crime were in the past rooted in concepts of sin, and therefore of hopes for redemption and forgiveness. So what happens - to offenders and society as a whole - in a world where people no longer talk of sin but of evil. If hopes of redemption go too, will revenge take the place of forgiveness? Kay Carmichael explores these dilemmas in this topical and provocative book. She traces the stories of Myra Hindley, Mary Bell, Sarah Payne, James Bulger and his killers, comparing public responses to such crimes in various Western countries. Art and literature are examined for the light they throw on the evolution of our ideas about sin and forgiveness - from Rembrandt to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Samuel Becket, Dali and writings inspired by the Holocaust. Turning to our own day, Carmichael discusses the emergence of structural sins or 'iniquities' in which we may all find ourselves involved: poverty, slavery, violence and war are her themes. Her analysis leaves her sceptical about many contemporary appeals for forgiveness, but hopeful about ideas of restorative justice.