Pain does not have a sensory function In the previous part of this tutorial I set out the mainstream understanding of pain’s function: pain functions as the conscious awareness of a tissue damaging or threatening stimulus (in technical terms a ‘noxious stimulus’). In broader terms, the view of mainstream science is that pain has aContinue reading “How to treat pain #3“
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How to treat pain #2
The relationship between injury and pain – the mainstream view In “How to treat pain #1”, I explained why understanding pain is fundamental to treatment. I claimed that mainstream pain scientists and theorists are mistaken about pain’s function and, therefore, treatment based on mainstream scientific theory is not as effective as it might be. IContinue reading “How to treat pain #2“
How to treat pain – a tutorial
It has been a long time since I published anything on here. I could give you many (poor) reasons, but I have, at least, made a decent start on the following project. I’ve found this very difficult. You may have realised I’ve a tendency to elaborate rather too much. In writing this tutorial, I’ve foundContinue reading “How to treat pain – a tutorial”
Conceptual models of pain – a case of neglect
It’s been a long time since I posted anything on this blog. I had a good reason (past tense, of course). I began developing a course to help people treat or manage their own pain. A considerable project I intended to present as a series of episodes via this blog. But (there’s often a ‘but’)Continue reading “Conceptual models of pain – a case of neglect”
The paradox of pain
Pain has been called paradoxical for various reasons (for example, pain is a mental state and yet we have pains in parts of the body), but I have a particular paradox in mind; the contradiction between the positive impact pain has on our existence and our negative attitude towards pain. Now it may be thatContinue reading “The paradox of pain”
Defining pain – again!
A few days ago, when I was out walking, I ran into someone I’d met very briefly on holiday in Greece at the end of last year. It was one of those, ‘don’t I know you from somewhere’ meetings. The other day, without prompting, Pete began to talk about pain AND he perfectly quoted theContinue reading “Defining pain – again!”
The relationship between injury and pain
This entry’s intended to clear up the common misconception that the relationship between injury and pain is causal. Injury doesn’t cause pain. Well, not directly anyway. In my view, it’s best to think of the relationship as functional; injury is related to pain by the function of pain. The relationship between injury and pain isContinue reading “The relationship between injury and pain”
Pain is not suffering, and suffering is not pain
At an inter-disciplinary conference on “pain” several years ago, I struggled to make sense of the first-couple of presentations because the presenters used the words ‘pain’and ‘suffering’ interchangeably. Of course, it’s ordinary linguistic practice to use the word ‘pain’ (and synonyms for pain like ‘hurt’, ‘ache’, and ‘painful’) to refer to suffering. It’s normal toContinue reading “Pain is not suffering, and suffering is not pain”
The importance of conceptual clarity – defining pain
This blog is closely related to my previous blog – “Stuart Derbyshire on foetal pain”. In that blog I reported that Stuart now rejects his former view that foetuses and early stage infants can’t feel pain because of a change in his theoretical position not because new evidence had emerged. This was intended to highlightContinue reading “The importance of conceptual clarity – defining pain”
Stuart Derbyshire on foetal pain
I’m interested to read that Stuart Derbyshire has changed his opinion on foetal pain. This is important because Stuart, who is associate professor of psychology at the National University of Singapore, has been and is a prominent researcher and commentator on foetal pain. His view was that foetuses and early stage infants can’t experience pain.Continue reading “Stuart Derbyshire on foetal pain”
The Pain Jam 