Embodiment and chronic pain: implications for rehabilitation practice

Area of Science:

• Phenomenology
• Philosophy of Medicine
• Rehabilitation Science

Background:

• Western healthcare often medicalizes psychosomatic/psychosocial issues, viewing the body as a machine.
• This approach can lead to a fragmented experience of illness, separating physical symptoms from lived realities.
• Chronic pain significantly disrupts the individual's connection to their body and the surrounding world.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present an alternative framework for understanding ill health and rehabilitation.
• To utilize Maurice Merleau-Ponty's philosophy to deepen insights into the rehabilitation process.
• To explore how chronic pain impacts the body-world relationship and the sense of self.

Main Methods:

• Philosophical analysis drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology.
• Conceptual exploration of the lived experience of chronic pain and its effect on embodiment.
• Examination of the rehabilitation process through a phenomenological lens.

Main Results:

• Chronic pain diminishes the articulation of self and world, alienating individuals from meaningful life experiences.
• The experience of pain centralizes the body, leading to a loss of identity and detachment.
• Rehabilitation requires addressing not only the physical body but also the diminished sense of self and social withdrawal.

Conclusions:

• Rehabilitation should reintegrate the body into the flow of experience, allowing the world to re-emerge.
• A phenomenological approach enriches understanding of chronic pain, emphasizing the embodied self.
• Effective rehabilitation necessitates a holistic approach, encompassing physical, psychological, and social dimensions of recovery.