The Story of Pain

From Prayer to Painkillers

Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Medical, Reference, History, Science & Nature, Science
Cover of the book The Story of Pain by Joanna Bourke, OUP Oxford
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Joanna Bourke ISBN: 9780191003554
Publisher: OUP Oxford Publication: June 26, 2014
Imprint: OUP Oxford Language: English
Author: Joanna Bourke
ISBN: 9780191003554
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication: June 26, 2014
Imprint: OUP Oxford
Language: English

Everyone knows what is feels like to be in pain. Scraped knees, toothaches, migraines, giving birth, cancer, heart attacks, and heartaches: pain permeates our entire lives. We also witness other people - loved ones - suffering, and we 'feel with' them. It is easy to assume this is the end of the story: 'pain-is-pain-is-pain', and that is all there is to say. But it is not. In fact, the way in which people respond to what they describe as 'painful' has changed considerably over time. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example, people believed that pain served a specific (and positive) function - it was a message from God or Nature; it would perfect the spirit. 'Suffer in this life and you wouldn't suffer in the next one'. Submission to pain was required. Nothing could be more removed from twentieth and twenty-first century understandings, where pain is regarded as an unremitting evil to be 'fought'. Focusing on the English-speaking world, this book tells the story of pain since the eighteenth century, addressing fundamental questions about the experience and nature of suffering over the last three centuries. How have those in pain interpreted their suffering - and how have these interpretations changed over time? How have people learnt to conduct themselves when suffering? How do friends and family react? And what about medical professionals: should they immerse themselves in the suffering person or is the best response a kind of professional detachment? As Joanna Bourke shows in this fascinating investigation, people have come up with many different answers to these questions over time. And a history of pain can tell us a great deal about how we might respond to our own suffering in the present - and, just as importantly, to the suffering of those around us.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Everyone knows what is feels like to be in pain. Scraped knees, toothaches, migraines, giving birth, cancer, heart attacks, and heartaches: pain permeates our entire lives. We also witness other people - loved ones - suffering, and we 'feel with' them. It is easy to assume this is the end of the story: 'pain-is-pain-is-pain', and that is all there is to say. But it is not. In fact, the way in which people respond to what they describe as 'painful' has changed considerably over time. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example, people believed that pain served a specific (and positive) function - it was a message from God or Nature; it would perfect the spirit. 'Suffer in this life and you wouldn't suffer in the next one'. Submission to pain was required. Nothing could be more removed from twentieth and twenty-first century understandings, where pain is regarded as an unremitting evil to be 'fought'. Focusing on the English-speaking world, this book tells the story of pain since the eighteenth century, addressing fundamental questions about the experience and nature of suffering over the last three centuries. How have those in pain interpreted their suffering - and how have these interpretations changed over time? How have people learnt to conduct themselves when suffering? How do friends and family react? And what about medical professionals: should they immerse themselves in the suffering person or is the best response a kind of professional detachment? As Joanna Bourke shows in this fascinating investigation, people have come up with many different answers to these questions over time. And a history of pain can tell us a great deal about how we might respond to our own suffering in the present - and, just as importantly, to the suffering of those around us.

More books from OUP Oxford

Cover of the book European Law and New Health Technologies by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of Postcolonial Studies by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book Diabetes by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book The Impossible by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book The Voices of Nîmes by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book Plant Functional Diversity by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book Thin Objects by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book Before the State by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book To Reform the World by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book The Structure of Objects by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book The Social and Applied Psychology of Music by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book Conan Doyle by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book Twelve Voices from Greece and Rome by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book On the Origin of Species by Joanna Bourke
Cover of the book Virus Hunt by Joanna Bourke
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy