Screams
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A scream is a loud vocalization in which air is passed through the
vocal cords In humans, vocal cords, also known as vocal folds or voice reeds, are folds of throat tissues that are key in creating sounds through vocalization. The size of vocal cords affects the pitch of voice. Open when breathing and vibrating for speech ...
with greater force than is used in regular or close-distance vocalisation. This can be performed by any creature possessing lungs, including humans. A scream is often an
instinct Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behaviour, containing both innate (inborn) and learned elements. The simplest example of an instinctive behaviour is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which a v ...
ive or
reflex In biology, a reflex, or reflex action, is an involuntary, unplanned sequence or action and nearly instantaneous response to a stimulus. Reflexes are found with varying levels of complexity in organisms with a nervous system. A reflex occurs ...
action, with a strong
emotion Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. ...
al aspect, like
fear Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear ...
,
pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...
,
annoyance Annoyance is an unpleasant mental state that is characterized by irritation and distraction from one's conscious thinking. It can lead to emotions such as frustration and anger. The property of being easily annoyed is called irritability. Ps ...
, surprise,
joy The word joy refers to the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune, and is typically associated with feelings of intense, long lasting happiness. Dictionary definitions Dictionary definitions of joy typically include a sense of ...
,
excitement Excitation, excite, exciting, or excitement may refer to: * Excitation (magnetic), provided with an electrical generator or alternator * Excite Ballpark, located in San Jose, California * Excite (web portal), web portal owned by IAC * Electron exc ...
,
anger Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, su ...
, etc.


Troponyms

A large number of words exist to describe the act of making loud vocalizations, whether intentionally or in response to stimuli, and with specific nuances. For example, an early twentieth century synonym guide places variations under the heading of "call", and includes synonyms such as: bawl, bellow, clamor, cry (out), ejaculate, exclaim, roar, scream, shout, shriek, vociferate, and yell, each with its own implications.James Champlin Fernald, "Call", ''English Synonyms and Antonyms: With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions" (1914), p. 136-37. This source states: Another source proposes different implications for some of these terms, stating that "the call is normally addressed to a specific person... and the shout projected to a distant but identifiable target, the holler is emitted to whomever may be within earshot".John Shepherd, "Holler/Hollering", ''Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: Volume II: Performance and Production'' (2003), p. 137. Whooping is another name given to the same kind of noise making as hollering. This source separately notes that a shout "may be angry or joyous; it may be directed to one person or many; and, sometimes, its purpose may be merely for the satisfaction of release or of hearing an echo".


As a phenomenon


In psychology

In psychology, the scream is an important theme in the theories of
Arthur Janov Arthur Janov (; August 21, 1924October 1, 2017), also known as Art Janov, was an American psychologist, psychotherapist, and writer. He gained notability as the creator of primal therapy, a treatment for mental illness that involves repeatedly de ...
. In his book ''
The Primal Scream ''The Primal Scream. Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neurosis'' (1970; second edition 1999) is a book by the psychologist Arthur Janov, in which the author describes his experiences with patients during the months he developed primal therapy. Althou ...
'', Janov claims that the cure for neurosis is to confront the patient with his suppressed pain resulting from an experienced trauma. This confrontation gives birth to a scream. Janov believes that it is not necessary that it heals the patient from his trauma. The scream is only a form of expression of primal pain, which comes from one's childhood, and the reliving of this pain and its expression. This finally appears through the scream and can cure the patient from his neurosis. Janov describes the primal scream as very distinctive and unmistakable. It is a “strangely low, rattling and involuntary sound. Some people are moaning, groaning and are coiling themselves up. One screams as result of all the other times when it had to stay still, was making fun of, was humiliated or was beaten up”. Janov also says that the primal scream has series of reactions; “the patients that could not even say “piep” at home, suddenly feels powerful. The scream seems to be a liberating experience”. Janov noticed this with all his patients. Women who seem to have baby-voices during the therapy are developing with their primal scream a very low voice.


As focus of power

Gregory Whitehead Gregory Whitehead (Nantucket, MA) is a writer, radio program maker and audio artist based in Lenox, Massachusetts. Allen S. Weiss considers him to be a major figure in the fields of audio art and radio art.Allen S. Weiss, ''"Lost Tongues and Disa ...
, founder of the ''Institute for Screamscape Studies'', believes that the voice is used to focus the power: “scream used to be a psychological weapon both for you and against your opponent, it raises confidence to the person using it. Creating power with yell is having to affect someone without touching them”. In this case screaming is a protective weapon, as also often used by animals, who scream as an expression of power or during fights with another animal.


Screaming in pleasure

Screaming and yelling are also a means of expressing pleasure. Studies on monkeys have shown that when female monkeys scream during sex, it helps the male ejaculate. An approximation of 86 percent of the times where female monkeys screamed during a sexual encounter, brought a 59 percent success rate, in comparison to the 2 percent, without the female-scream. Gayle Brewer of the University of Central Lancashire and Colin Hendrie of the University of Leeds conducted similar research with women, showing that women also scream during intercourse as an encouragement for their partner to do "a better job".


Screaming as a nascent language

Janov believes that for babies, screaming is the only form of communication they can have; it is the only way a baby can express their necessities, that they need food, they are in pain or they simply need some love. Janov writes, “screaming is a language – a primitive one, but a human language”.


Communication and language

Diana König, journalist and broadcasting author, writes: “If the scream of babies is their first communication method, then the scream of adults is a recession from communication. By screaming, in the opposite of calling, the voice becomes overloaded and over-amplified, and it loses its control, its fundamental sound”. The scream is there before language and it appears where the language reaches its limits.
Elaine Scarry Elaine Scarry (born June 30, 1946) is an American essayist and professor of English and American Literature and Language. She is the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. Her interests inc ...
, writer and literature professor, talks about language in connection to pain and she thinks that pain almost destroys the language because it brings people back into a state where sounds and screams are dominating as they were their means of communication before they learned how to speak. Pain cannot actually be communicated, as it is a personal experience and can only be experienced individually.
Pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...
, as any other concept, is actually an individual experience that can only be communicated as an idea and it also is to be interpreted as.
Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
writes: “The biggest relief when having pain is to be able to scream it out through this expression, the pain becomes objective and this makes the connection between the subject, who is alone in pain, and the object, that is not in pain.” Arnal and colleague demonstrated that human screams exploit a unique acoustic property, roughness, that selectively activates the auditory
brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...
as well as the amygdala, a deep brain structure involved in danger processing.


Art


Painting

''
The Scream ''The Scream'' is a composition created by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1893. The agonized face in the painting has become one of the most iconic images of art, seen as symbolizing the anxiety of the human condition. Munch's work, including ...
'' ( no, Skrik) is the popular name given to each of eight versions of a composition, created as both
paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
and
pastel A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...
s, by the
Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
artist
Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, ''The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dr ...
between 1893 and 1910. ''Der Schrei der Natur'' (''The Scream of Nature'') is the title Munch gave to these works, all of which show a figure with an agonized expression against a landscape with a tumultuous orange sky.
Arthur Lubow Arthur Lubow (born September 18, 1952) is a journalist who has written for national magazines since 1975 and is the author of ''Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer'' (2016). Early life and education Lubow grew up in the Bronx and attended the ...
has described ''The Scream'' as "an icon of modern art, a Mona Lisa for our time."Arthur Lubow,
Edvard Munch: Beyond The Scream
, ''Smithsonian Magazine'', March 2006, (retrieved 29 March 2013)


Music

In music there are long traditions of scream in rock, punk rock, heavy metal,
soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...
, rock and roll, and emo music. Vocalists are developing various techniques of screaming that results in different ways of screaming. In rock and metal music singers are developing very demanding guttural and growled sounds. Scream is also used predominant as an aesthetic element in “cante jondo”, a vocal style in flamenco. The name of this style is translated as “deep sing”. The origins of flamenco and also of its name are still not clear. Flamenco is related to the gypsies’ music and it is said to have appeared in Andalusia in Spain. In cante jondo, that is a subdivision of flamenco, which is considered to be more serious and deep, the singer is reduced to the most rudimentary method of expression, which is the cry and the scream. Ricardo Molima, a Spanish poet, wrote "flamenco is the primal scream in its primitive form, from a people sunk in poverty and ignorance. Thus, the original flamenco song could be described as a type of self-therapy.” David N. Green, musician, writer and composer, wrote in 1987 an essay about musicians using screams as a singing technique in music. He makes the distinction between harmonic scream that relates to the harmony of the music and has components of tonality, the true scream that is atonal, the lyrical scream that is related with the song's lyrics and the pure scream that is not. The harmonic scream is the scream that is still very clear and has a defined pitch and that, according to Green, can actually be related to a fake scream; as it has no great disturbance, the lyrical scream that is related to words, most of the time swearing and the pure scream or the true scream, that in this case can also be called as the real scream or the primal scream. Scream in music can also be seen in other ways than just a vocal action. Many musicians use scream as an inspirational source for their playing with instruments. This is usually represented in a loud hit on the instrument's chords, in the case of the instruments that have chords, or a loud striking note, on the blowing instruments.


Sound art

''Pressure of the unspeakable'' is a radio feature work by
Gregory Whitehead Gregory Whitehead (Nantucket, MA) is a writer, radio program maker and audio artist based in Lenox, Massachusetts. Allen S. Weiss considers him to be a major figure in the fields of audio art and radio art.Allen S. Weiss, ''"Lost Tongues and Disa ...
. Initiated in 1991 the project started with the founding of the ''Institute of the Screamscape studies'' where people were asked through radio and television to call on a hot line and scream. Whitehead notes: “In addition to framing the nervous system, the telephone-microphone-tape-recorder-radio circuitry also provided the key for the acoustic demarcation of pressure in the system: distortion, the disruption of digital codes, pure unmanageable noise. The scream as an eruption in excess of prescribed circuitries, as capable of “ blowing” communications technologies not designed for such extreme and unspeakable meanings”. Whitehead gathered slowly an archive of screams that was edited and resulted in a theoretical narrative radio feature. Allen S. Weiss notes about his work that “the screamscape lies beyond any possible determination of authenticity”. The people's vociferations are just manifestations that through their anonymity create a sense of togetherness.


Theater

Actors are taught from the beginning of their careers how to scream correctly. They learn how to awaken that uncomfortable feeling in the listener without necessarily having to have any psychological attachment.


Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...
's' last written work ''To have done with the judgment of god'' was recorded by him for the French radio in 1947. One day before it was scheduled, the director of the radio prohibited it for strong anti-religious and anti-American reasons. The piece consists of intensive texts with interludes of instrumental and vocal improvised sounds and screams. Allen S. Weiss writes about Antonin Artaud’s scream: “the scream is the expulsion of an unbearable, impossible internal polarization between life’s forces and death’s negation, simultaneously signifying and simulation creation and destruction scream, as a nonmaterial double of excrement, may be both expression and expulsion, a sign of birth creation and frustration the scream is the desublimation of speech into the body, in opposition to the sublimation of body into meaningful speech”. The extreme character of the scream has a life danger element that stands for denying of death. In Artaud's case, a person who was always very close to death and has been calling himself so ever since having strong shock therapies, the scream represents exactly this border between life and death, creation and destruction, of art work and of oneself. Artaud's screams are mostly related to words. The small interludes that are in between the texts parts sometimes contain screams.


Performance art

Marina Abramović Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, feminist art, the relationship between the performer and audienc ...
used scream as an element in different performances: together with
Ulay Frank Uwe Laysiepen (; 30 November 1943 – 2 March 2020), known professionally as Ulay, was a German artist based in Amsterdam and Ljubljana, who received international recognition for his Polaroid art and collaborative performance art with long ...
in ''AAA AAA'', the two are facing each other and are gradually screaming louder and louder while getting closer and closer to each other's face, until they both lose their voice; ''Freeing the voice'', where Abramovic is staying with her head upside down and screaming till she is left with no voice anymore.


Other aspects


Dialogue

Some people, when
arguing An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialectic ...
begin to raise their voices to the point that they are screaming at each other in anger while continuing their debate exchange. Terminology includes "
shouting match A shouting match is an argument or debate characterized by the loud volume or intensity of the participants. Parliamentary procedures Large assemblies may easily degenerate into shouting matches as the participants raise their voices just in orde ...
".


Nature

In nature screaming is often used as a method for showing dominance. Chimpanzees in particular are known to use this as a method for revealing power, and to show they are superior when fighting.


Martial arts

Shouting or screaming is commonly employed in martial arts as a means of intimidating an opponent, focusing energy during attacks, or to control breathing. See
Kiai KIAI (93.9 FM) is a commercial radio station that serves the areas of Mason City, Iowa and Austin–Albert Lea, Minnesota. The station broadcasts a Country format. KIAI is owned by Alpha Media, through licensee Digity 3E License, LLC, which ...
.


Military

Drill instructor A drill instructor is a non-commissioned officer in the armed forces, fire department, or police forces with specific duties that vary by country. Foot drill, military step, and marching are typically taught by drill instructors. Australia Austr ...
s frequently shout to train recruits into the military culture whilst fostering obedience and expedience. Shouting in this context is intended as stress stimulus, triggering the
fight-or-flight response The fight-or-flight or the fight-flight-or-freeze response (also called hyperarousal or the acute stress response) is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival. It was first des ...
. This allows the drill instructor to observe inherent recruit responses to stress, to modify such responses, and to also acclimate the recruit to stressful situations they will experience in combat. Encouraging screaming by recruits also heightens their aggressiveness and trains them to intimidate opponents.


Audio level

The volume levels of outcries may be very high, and this has become an issue in the sport of tennis, particularly with regards to
Maria Sharapova Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ( , ; rus, Мари́я Ю́рьевна Шара́пова, p=mɐˈrʲijə ʂɐˈrapəvə, a=Maria_sharapova.ogg; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 ...
's loud
tennis grunt Grunting in tennis is a loud noise made by some players while hitting their shots. Such noises have sometimes been described as "shrieking" or "screaming". Monica Seles, and Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe are generally considered to be the "grunt ...
s which have been measured as high as 101.2 decibels.Tennis grunters told to stop the racket
Linda Pearce, Theage.com, retrieved December 19, 2007
The loudest verified scream emitted by a human measured 129 dBA, a record set by teaching assistant Jill Drake in 2000.


Unicode


See also

*
Battle cry A battle cry or war cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same combatant group. Battle cries are not necessarily articulate (e.g. "Eulaliaaaa!", "Alala"..), although they often aim to invoke patriotic or religious ...
*
Death growl A death growl, or simply growl, is an extended vocal technique usually employed in extreme styles of music, particularly in death metal and other extreme subgenres of heavy metal music. Death growl vocals are sometimes criticized for their ...
*
Howie scream A stock sound effect is a prerecorded sound effect intended to be reused with an entertainment product, as opposed to creating a new and unique sound effect. It is intended to work within a sound effect library. History As far back as Ancient Gre ...
, another often used stock scream *
Rebel yell The rebel yell was a battle cry used by Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War. Confederate soldiers used the yell when charging to intimidate the enemy and boost their own morale, although the yell had many other uses. No audio ...
*
Tarzan yell The Tarzan yell or Tarzan's jungle call is the distinctive, ululating yell of the character Tarzan as portrayed by actor Johnny Weissmuller in the films based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs starting with ''Tarzan the Ape Man'' ( ...
*
Wilhelm scream The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect that has been used in a number of films and TV series, beginning in 1951 with the film ''Distant Drums''. The scream is usually used when someone is shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from a ...
, an iconic sound effect used in films dating back to 1951


References


External links

* *{{wikiquote-inline, Scream Oral communication af:Stem#Skree