The Puzzle of Pain - Hardcover

Inhaltsangabe

Pain has changed. After centuries of resignation pain need no longer be endured. In Western societies pain was once a taboo subject and within traditional western medicine the aim was to cure rather than relieve pain. Progress in pain relief pharmacology is a recent development.
Pain is changing. Even though we now know more about the biological and chemical aspects of pain, which, in theory, are the same for all normal individuals, these aspects do not fully explain the experience of pain which one individual will find intolerable and another barely notice. Pain is not limited to sensitivity nor does it attack a body without a soul.
Pain changes continuously according to a society's perception at a specific point in time. History and ethnology remind us that pain varies little in terms of genetic and racial characteristics, whereas it is a product of culture, and there lies its mystery.
The selection of essays in this book was made with the aim of widening the scientific approach and of taking into account the various human experiences of pain, from philosophy to history, from anthropology to psychoanalysis. Rich in illustrations, the book also contains reproductions of works of art.

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