: 158–9  Brazelton argues that too much cheering a child up devalues the emotion of sadness for them;: 52  and Selma Fraiberg suggests that it is important to respect a childs right to experience a loss fully and deeply.Margaret Mahler also saw the ability to feel sadness as an emotional achievement, as opposed for example to warding it off through restless hyperactivity. D. W. Winnicott similarly saw in sad crying the psychological root of valuable musical experiences in later life. Neuroanatomy
A large amount of research has been conducted on the neuroscience of sadness. According to the American Journal of Psychiatry, sadness has been found to be associated with "increases in bilateral activity within the vicinity of the middle and posterior temporal cortex, lateral cerebellum, cerebellar vermis, midbrain, putamen, and caudate." Jose V. Pardo has his M.D and Ph.D and leads a research program in cognitive neuroscience. Using positron emission tomography (PET) Pardo and his colleagues were able to provoke sadness among seven normal men and women by asking them to think about sad things. They observed increased brain activity in the bilateral inferior and orbitofrontal cortex. In a study that induced sadness in subjects by showing emotional film clips, the feeling was correlated with significant increases in regional brain activity, especially in the prefrontal cortex, in the region called Brodmanns area 9, and the thalamus. A significant increase in activity was also observed in the bilateral anterior temporal structures.
Cultural explorations
During the Renaissance, Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene endorsed sadness as a marker of spiritual commitment.In The Lord of the Rings, sadness is distinguished from unhappiness, to exemplify J. R. R. Tolkiens preference for a sad, but settled determination, as opposed to what he saw as the shallower temptations of either despair or hope.Julia Kristeva considered that "a diversification of moods, variety in sadness, refinement in sorrow or mourning are the imprint of a humanity that is surely not triumphant but subtle, ready to fight and creative". See also
Joie de vivre
Melancholia
Mood (psychology)

References


== Further reading ==