The ability to experience pain and suffering are universally and innately part of human ideology. Margaret Lock and Nancy Scheper-Hughes situate human affliction as mutually constructed by biological, social, and cultural understandings of the body. Both anthropologists advocate for a comprehensive perspective regarding illness and disease in which knowledge of and explanatory models referring to an individual’s illness are fixed on a greater social, political, and cosmic influences. Apparent identical life events can be explained by purely contradictory understandings of the body; pain, suffering and death simply cannot be explained in a manner that lacks the wider context of culture and society.…
Why We Hurt: The Natural History of Pain is written by neurosurgeon, Dr. Frank Vertosick, who transforms the vast subject of pain into an exciting and enlightening discussion that is highly engaging. Dr. Vertosick examines many types of pain including migraines, phantom limb pain, tic douloureux, ruptured discs, rheumatoid arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, angina pains, and cancer. Each chapter presents a clinical case, the different ways in which cultures viewed the disorder and the biology related to the disorder. The clinical cases of each patient give a personal touch and depicts just how these disorders can affect patients not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. Dr. Vertosick introduces his response to pain by challenging C.S. Lewis’ statements involving the inseparability of religion and pain and how God intended for the pain of individuals as to create a way in which he was worshiped and looked upon to end suffering.…
A common way of arguing against the existence or goodness of God is to present the problem of pain: “If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both” (The Problem of Pain 23). C.S. Lewis attempts to answer the intellectual question by first explaining the four components of religious development, then explaining the origin of the problem, and concluding with his answer.…
After reading Divided by Race, United by Pain. I have so many strong thoughts and feelings about what happen in these three states. First I will like to say I am disappointed in my black community. When it comes to protesting about police brutality it should not be done in a negative way. There is no need to riot with guns, bats and other weapons.…
Pain is a feeling triggered by the nervous system. Our bodies are covered with millions of pain receptors called nociceptors. Nociceptors send a signal to the spinal cord then to the brain. Nociceptors trigger responses when you are experience pain, like if you touch something hot your nociceptors would send a reflex message to jerk your hand away from the danger. Pain is initially processed in the spinal cord then sent to…
Disc problems including sciatica pain, degenerative disc disease and disc prolapse are the serious health aliments that can produce bothersome symptoms. Spinal discs act as a cushion between the back bones and are very susceptible to injury or disease, causing severe pain in the back and legs. These problems greatly affect aging individuals because of wear and tear in the spine disc cartilage, causing the loss of normal function or structure and decrease quality of life. Proper pain management for disc problems is decisive to deal with this painful health ailment and prevent any serious outcome. Symptoms of Disc Problems…
Throughout this chapter, Livingston utilizes a wide array of anecdotal evidence to provide an in-depth understanding of the social dynamics at play in the process of pain. To lay the framework of this discussion, there is a contrast between two major understandings of pain. On one hand, Elaine Scarry concluded that pain is an individualized experience that is strongly understood by the victim while Talal Asad claimed that a major aspect of pain is the social response and interaction with others. Asad’s view is more in-line with the author’s view and she utilizes an anecdote of the Kaposi’s sarcoma patient, M, and how the social context surrounding his amputation—and need for reamputation—was greatly affected by the social cues of those in…
Annotated Bibliography Cagle, J. G., Zimmerman, S., Cohen, L. W., Porter, L. S., Hanson, L. C., & Reed, D. (2015). Empower: An intervention to address barriers to pain management in hospice. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 49(1), 1-12. doi: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2014.05.007.…
Also, each culture is different in how they express pain, it does not mean that they either feel more or feel less pain than they are stating they are…
The study conducted by Cleeland, Gonin, Hatfield, et al., included 1,308 patients with previously diagnosed recurrent or metastatic cancer who had undergone surgery more than 30 days from the onset of the study. The patients came from a total of 54 facilities: 12 university cancer centers (267 patients); 12 community-based hospitals and practices (382 patients); and 30 community clinical oncology programs (659 patients). Group 1 – Patients Patients completed the Brief Pain Inventory at the time of a regular appointment. Patients were asked to rate several types of pain on a scale of 0 to 10. (0 being the “no pain” and 10 being “pain as bad as you can imagine.”)…
Introduction Pain catastrophizing is defined as a tendency to exaggerate and interpret pain-related experiences in a negative way, and it is associated with the expectation of negative outcomes in ambiguous situations (Parkerson et al., 2013; Sharpe, Johnson, & Dear, 2014). Considering the association between pain catastrophizing and pain-related fear, it is likely that pain catastrophizing can be also considered responsible for persistence of chronic pain (Khatibi, Schrooten, Vancleef, & Vlaeyen, 2014). In addition, pain catastrophizing may have a communal coping function that is chronic pain patients may catastrophize about pain to elicit more support from their significant others, for instance, their spouses (M. J. Sullivan et al., 2001).…
Analyzing Chronic Pain as it Pertains to Affecting a Whole Person Chronic Pain is experienced by a large population of individuals and often affects every aspect of one's existence. Kirkham, Smith, and Havsteen-Franklin, in referencing an analysis from the Institute of Medicine, state, "about 100 million adults in the United States suffer from chronic pain" (2015, para. 2). Pain is often hard to describe, making the experience of chronic pain an isolating experience for some individuals. When pain is chronic and affects everyday functioning it can have major implications to one's psychological and social functioning. Chronic pain is a major issue in the United States and may be better handled if the emotional affects, affects to one's view…
“Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder.” Pain is always just like that, it comes without warning and leaves in the blink of an eye. Throughout the book Aristotle And Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, the main characters go through both physical and emotional pain.…
Low back pain with radiculopathy is defined as pain and discomfort, localized below the costal margin and above the inferior gluteal folds, with leg pain. Acute low back pain is usually defined as the duration of an episode of low back pain persisting for less than 6 weeks; sub-acute low back pain as low back pain persisting between 6 and 12 weeks; chronic low back pain as low back pain persisting for 12 weeks or more. Recurrent low back pain is defined as a new episode after a symptom-free period of 6 months, but not an exacerbation of chronic low back pain.2 Pain is a subjective experience, and acute pain is a warning signal which expresses that body tissue is about to be injured. If injury actually occurs, then a cascade of pathophysiological events will take place in a well mapped simultaneous and chronological order.9…
Pain is a blessing. Philip Yancey, author of Where is God When it Hurts? (Zondervan, 1990), proposes many thoughtful illustrations of suffering in our lives. He describes pain in a curious fashion, but offers multiple points and recognizes various situations that commonly occur in our lives. Philip Yancey introduces life-changing ideas that involve the purpose of pain, where it comes from, and God’s role in suffering,…