[Subject and pain: introduction to a philosophy of medicine]

Arch Argent Pediatr. 2010 Oct;108(5):434-7. doi: 10.1590/S0325-00752010000500009.
[Article in Spanish]

Abstract

Pain cannot be explained. It may only be understood from the most unpleasant of positions: suffering it. Thus, in the attempt to account for its multiple occurrences, meanings and mechanisms, developing a philosophy of pain appears to be essential. The approach to these issues by traditional occidental medicine has not considered the particular language in their background, which contains a double subjectivity: the subjectivity it represents itself, and that which frames the relationship between the agents where this language circulates. Articulating traditional scientific medicine with social, anthropological, and artistic disciplines would allow for a satisfactory response to this double subjectiveness, resulting in a deep change in current pain therapies.

Publication types

  • English Abstract

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Pain*
  • Philosophy, Medical*