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Author Spotlight: Quantifying Pain Experience – An Illustrative Approach Using the Pain Body Diagram
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Conceptualizing suffering and pain.
1Department of Philosophy and Research Center Medical Humanities, University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52d, A6020, Innsbruck, Austria. Noelia.bueno-gomez@uibk.ac.at.
Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine : PEHM
|September 30, 2017
Summary
This study offers new definitions for pain and suffering, emphasizing their existential impact and subjective experience. These insights aim to improve understanding and management of pain and suffering in medicine.
Area of Science:
- Philosophy of Medicine
- Medical Humanities
- Phenomenology
Background:
- Critically examines classical evidence-based medicine, humanistic approaches, and theories of suffering and pain.
- Discusses conceptions of the person, including the mind-body dichotomy and the idea of persons as 'intact beings'.
- Aims to provide non-essential and non-naturalistic definitions of pain and suffering.
Purpose of the Study:
- To contribute to a better conceptualization of pain and suffering.
- To propose improved definitions for pain and suffering.
- To inform future research and clinical practice.
Main Methods:
- Philosophical methodology.
- Comprehensive review of existing literature on pain and suffering.
- Argumentation for refined definitions of pain and suffering.
Main Results:
- Pain perception is influenced by neurological, cognitive, interpretive, behavioral, cultural, and educational factors.
- Suffering is defined as a psychophysically and existentially distressing experience.
- Definitions acknowledge pain and suffering as life experiences shaping the self, without defining them as inherently destructive or constructive.
Conclusions:
- The proposed definitions aid in identifying, understanding, and managing pain and suffering.
- Highlights the limitations of medicine in treating suffering and pain.
- Lays groundwork for research to avoid epistemological errors and moral injustices.
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