The experience of agonizing pain and signals of disembodiment

Philosophical literature discussing embodiment has yet to address the many and multiple modes of disembodiment. The analysis of interviews with burn patients who had experienced agonizing injuries reveals reference to their own body parts using depersonalized language (i.e., it, the, this). The conjectures tested were: disembodiment (1) due to loss of sensation; (2) due to loss of ability to control the affected part; (3) as learned from physicians; (4) as a means to protect the self in an agonizing situation; or (5) as a means of controlling overwhelming pain. These alternative explanations for the use of linguistic signals of disembodiment were assessed by comparing burn patient interviews with interviews of patients who differed by significant characteristics (i.e., patients who had spinal cord injuries, transplants, or myocardial infarction). Thus, alternative conjectures for the use of disembodying language were excluded, and the interpretation is advanced that the use of disembodying language by burn patients points toward a special human capacity to maintain the integrity of the self during prolonged agonizing experiences. The present study thus attempts a phenomenological interpretation of the body and its experience by drawing on otherwise neglected qualitative research data to broaden and deepen our understanding of the experience of excruciating pain.