Faced with stress and tension, several options are available to you: sport, meditation and, more recently… screaming together with other nervous people in a dedicated, and hopefully soundproof, place. THE scream clubs are thus more and more numerous, signs of a society which no longer wants to “take it upon itself”.
Coming together for the same cry
From London to New York, from Stockholm to Austin, hundreds of young people come together to scream together in these “clubs”. Their principle is as simple as it is liberating: shout at the top of your lungs, in a group, to release the pressure.
“In a city like London, people are constantly stressed. It’s nice to be able to let off some steam together.”says Shania Barnes, 23 years old, member of the London Scream ClubIn The Guardian.
“It’s not just a shouting club, it’s also a place of conviviality,” she prefers to add.
This phenomenon, which has gone viral on TikTok, is not just a simple fad: it responds to a collective need for catharsis, at a time when mental health care remains inaccessible for many. Screaming in a place without scaring your loved ones also looks attractive.“I can’t really shout at home, my parents would be distraught. But here, everyone is in the same boat”confides Maliha, 21 years old.
When the cry becomes a valve
Shouting, according to psychologists, activates our parasympathetic nervous system — that of relaxation and release.
“The cry is an archaic reflex, a discharger of raw emotions”explains therapist Anissa Ali, author of Dating, the great illusion. A visceral, almost animal reaction, which releases accumulated tension.
This idea, brought up to date by TikTok, is nothing new: in the 1960s, psychologist Arthur Janov popularized primal therapy, based on the power of screaming to express buried wounds. John Lennon and Yoko Ono were also fans.
Hitting, shouting, tearing… Do they really do us any good?
In recent years, other practices in the same vein have emerged: Fury Rooms, Rage Rooms or even Rage Ritualswhich we have already mentioned. In the first, you pay to break objects with a baseball bat. In the second, born in the United States, women come together to scream, hit trees or cushions, and share their anger together.
“It’s a new trend that is developing, particularly with the Fury Rooms in France, which offer to break everything to de-stress a good bit. And yes, it works!”explained psychologist Johanna Rozenblum.
Some studies support these liberating effects: in Japan, researchers observed that participants allowed to scream and curse during a pain resistance test in ice water tolerated pain better than those forced to remain silent. Clearly, shouting, or venting verbally helps to overcome an emotional milestone.
“We live in a society of chronic tension: overworked, frustrated, exhausted, but asked to smile,” analyzes Anissa Ali.
“The body takes it. So it has to come out somewhere.”
The cry to release the pressure, but not to heal
But beware of excesses! Paid sessions, sometimes billed between 2,000 and 4,000 dollars, are flourishing in the United States to scream… which we can nevertheless do for free in our living room. “This reflects a new marketing vein more than a benevolent approach”tempers Johanna Rozenblum.
Let’s also remember that shared anger can relieve (and let off steam), but it does not cure. “Paying to go and insult a tree or shout in a group doesn’t cure anything. It just creates a feeling of belonging, a community”she added.
Psychologists are unanimous: shouting or breaking can be beneficial in the short term, but in no way replaces real therapy. “If the need comes with a loss of daily control, chronic suffering, and after the session the person perceives no lasting benefit, then the concept has its limits”recalls Johanna Rozenblum.
In other words, crying relieves without treating. It opens the way to speech, but does not replace it. But in an era where everyone speaks without listening to each other, shouting together is perhaps a first step towards inner silence.