LEADER 00000nam  22002535i 4500 
001    17857874 
005    20130820113526.0 
008    130820s2014    nyua     b    001 0 eng   
010    2013948402 
020    9780199689422|q(hardback) 
040    DLC|beng|erda|cDLC|dAS|dHS 
042    pcc 
050  4 BF515|b.B58 2014   
100 1  Bourke, Joanna 
245 14 The story of pain :|bfrom prayer to painkillers /|cJoanna 
       Bourke 
250    First edition 
264  1 New York, NY :|bOxford University Press,|c2014 
300    x, 396 pages. :|billustrations ;|c25 cm 
336    text|2rdacontent 
337    unmediated|2rdamedia 
338    volume|2rdacarrier 
504    Includes bibliographical references (pages 375-383) and 
       index 
505 0  Introduction -- Estrangement -- Metaphor -- Religion -- 
       Diagnosis -- Gesture -- Sentience -- Sympathy -- Pain 
       relief 
520    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? 
650  0 Pain|xHistory