What can I say about Pain: The Science of Suffering by Patrick Wall? The book was enlightening. Pain is not a topic I have thought about objectively until now, besides having it. Around chapter 4 I felt the book became more interesting. I was taking little notes about the book while reading it and until chapter 4, I didn’t have anything to write down. I guess I’ll use this blog post to discuss everything I found engaging in this book and interrupt with some ideas of my own.

William James, professor of psychology at Harvard, proposed that our emotions were "an awareness of our general body reactions to an event, rather than to the event itself", for lack of better words or meaning getting lost through rephrasing. My understanding of this is that our body chemicals and composition trigger an emotional response not vice versa. This is an intriguing concept that I would have never thought of. I guess it must take a Harvard professor to deduce such things.

Next is the topic of congenital analgesia, a very rare disease in which one feels no sensation of pain. I swear while reading about this the only thought that came to my mind was how much I wish I could have been born with this disease. Growing up to never feel physical pain seemed lucky to me and I was jealous of these people who could never physically hurt themselves or feel physical pain caused by others. Of course when I stopped daydreaming about this phenomenon and got back to reading about it I felt foolish. To feel pain is our body’s response to danger. I think the book used the example of a child touching a hot stove and instantaneously pulling away, burnt. Without feeling physical pain one would never experience the peril in touching a hot stove and could seriously burn their hand and get an infection. Then I felt sorry for the people in the world with congenital analgesia. They could end up doing some harmful damage to their bodies because they don’t get the warning signal of pain.

I always found the phenomenon of hypnosis fascinating so naturally I would enjoy this section in the book. I forever have wanted to be hypnotized but never had thought about how hypnosis could occur anytime one succumbed to a higher power of authority. I also never realized hypnosis was used for surgery back in the day. I still want to be hypnotized someday.

Another part of the book I enjoyed was the bit about ultrasound. My mom is a chiropractor and this summer had begun giving me ultrasound treatments for unexplained pain in my hip and knees. I find it funny that the author regards chiropractics as an alternative form of medicine after I know how much schooling chiropractors have to go through. I think my mom would certainly disagree with the author's opinion.

I feel like during the course of the book Wall contradicts himself and also never makes a commitment to anything he describes. He criticizes but he doesn’t necessarily advocate anything he illustrates, as far as treatments or methods. I guess as far as humans have come in technological and medicinal advances, we really don’t know a whole lot about how pain is caused, why, or what works to treat it. We are basically clueless as far as causes and effects of the body and its processes. I understand Wall when he says we have a long way to go.

I also agree with Wall in another point he brings up though I had never before thought about it. There is really nothing being done about the people in pain. Scientists and pharmaceutical companies are researching for the cure to ailments to help prevent pain, and Doctors and Surgeons are taking care of injuries, but those with chronic pain after seeing a doctor and before being cured by a miracle drug, they are left isolated. I know many of these such people in the limbo of medical care and though I don’t know what can be done about them or how they can be helped, at least Wall brought an awareness to this topic. Identifying the problem is the first step to recovery, don’t they say?

In closing all I can say was that I wish this book was more about psychological pain instead of just physical pain. I am really more interested in learning about psychological pain than physical pain. I think I enjoyed the part about placebos the most because it dipped into the psychology of the human as well as animal mind. I find the marvel of placebos bizarre and extraordinary. I kind of wish there was an omnipotent third party in my life that would offer me a placebo to help me with my pain.

The last point I will make was that it was a useful book for me to read because it offered insight into something that was previously undiscovered and unexplored in my mind. It even helped me recognize some medical terms today when I was at my wisdom tooth consultation. That should be a fun experience. I can’t wait to try my mom’s ultrasound machine on my face January 5th.