The very technique is interestingly reminiscent of the practice of bloodletting by leeches in the days of earlier, less sophisticated medicine. Such release, however, if indeed it is release and not merely exhaustion, is short-lived. For there is always, in such emotional bloodletting, the thought, I want, or I grieve that sturdy thread by which the supposedly exorcised feeling remains firmly fettered to the ego. It is difficult enough even for adults to escape their emotional problems by merely becoming aware of them. But adults have at least other frames of reference by which to reduce any given emotion to its relative insignificance.
Children have no such broadened perspective.
They suffer from what might be termed emotional tunnel vision. Any emotion presently endured by a child becomes for him an all-absorbing, wholly present reality. Nothing can be gained by forcing them to suppress their emotions. What they need, rather, is to learn how to channel those emotions positively. Of course a boy should feel free to cry if he feels like it.