Beyond Pain Scales: A Critical Phenomenology of the Expression of Pain

Miglio, Nicole; Stanier, Jessica

doi:10.3389/fpain.2022.895443

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Self-report is a proxy of inner experience. Pain questionnaires splinter a person's experience and may decontextualize care ( 4 , 5 ). The organic nature of art practice enables people to express holistic and contextualised experience with or without pain, offering novel ways of gaining insight to a person's state-of-being, self-identity and pain experience ( 6 ).…”

Section: Discussion: Perspectives Insights and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pain through the perspective of art and creativity: insights from the Unmasking Pain project

Johnson,

Chazot,

Cole

et al. 2023

Front. Pain Res.

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People struggle to tell their story of living with pain and when they do it is articulated in a way that may not be understood, heard or taken seriously. Unmasking Pain is an artist-led project that explored creative approaches to tell stories of life with pain. The project was led by a dance theatre company that specialises in storytelling and emotional experiences for players and audiences. The project involved artists and people living with ongoing pain co-creating activities and environments to curiously explore “oneself”, through imagination and creative expression. This article discusses insights and perspectives emerging from the project. The project revealed the power of art to make-sense of oneself with or without pain, and how art facilitates expression of complex inner experience and personal stories. People described Unmasking Pain as “explorative joy despite pain”, and “a new set of rules” that contrasts with those experienced during clinical encounters. We discuss how art has the potential to improve clinical encounters and promote health and well-being, and whether artist-led activities are an intervention, therapy, or something else. Pain rehabilitation specialists from the project described Unmasking Pain as “freeing-up thinking”, allowing conceptual thought beyond the biopsychosocial model of pain. We conclude that art has the potential to shift people living with pain from “I can't do, I am not willing to do it” to “Perhaps I can, I'll give it a go, I enjoyed”.

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Section: Discussion: Perspectives Insights and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pain through the perspective of art and creativity: insights from the Unmasking Pain project

Johnson,

Chazot,

Cole

et al. 2023

Front. Pain Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Self-isolation is an evolutionary adaptation that aids survival following injury, and people will have self-isolated in the Medieval Period, although this seems to have been heightened in modern times. The rise in individualism and the inability to adequately share pain in health care settings appear to be contributing factors ( 42 , 43 ). Conversely, technological developments have enabled sharing of pain via the world wide web and social media, enabling global reach way beyond the confines of local groups and communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding pain in modern society: insights from attitudes to pain in the Medieval Period

Paley,

Johnson,

Paley

2023

Front. Pain Res.

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Historical records provide knowledge about the way people lived in the past. Our perspective is that historical analyses of the Medieval Period provide insights to inform a fuller understanding of pain in the present era. In this article, we appraise critiques of the writings of people living with pain during the mid (high) to late Medieval Period (c. 1,000–1,500 AD) to gain insights into the nature, attitudes, lived experience, and sense-making of pain. In the Medieval Period, pain was understood in terms of Galen's four humours and the Church's doctrine of pain as a “divine gift”, “punishment for sin” and/or “sacrificial offering”. Many treatments for pain were precursors of those used in modern time and society considered pain to be a “shared experience”. We argue that sharing personal stories of life is a fundamental human attribute to foster social cohesion, and that nowadays sharing personal stories about pain is difficult during biomedically-focussed time-constrained clinical consultations. Exploring pain through a medieval lens demonstrates the importance of sharing stories of living with pain that are flexible in meaning, so that people can connect with a sense of self and their social world. We advocate a role for community-centred approaches to support people in the creation and sharing of their personal pain stories. Contributions from non-biomedical disciplines, such as history and the arts, can inform a fuller understanding of pain and its prevention and management.

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“…Such processes may contribute to positive emotional experiences associated with bodily sensations, as shown in phenomenological reports (Eschrich et al, 2008), as well as in the participant's testimonials referring to a variety of relief sensations in her spine, legs, and feet according to each type of music listened at different times and contexts. Imagination on the body may constitute a top-down element so that pain or relief experiences become figurative providing awareness and control over them (Miglio and Stanier, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Its effects comprise imagination and metaphors that can only be understood subjectively. In addition, there are a few spaces where people living with pain or who have tried alternative therapies can share their experiences without stigma (Miglio and Stanier, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Case Report: “I got my brain back” A patient’s experience with music-induced analgesia for chronic pain

Mercadillo

Garza-Villarreal

2023

Front. Psychol.

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Listening to music has progressively been proposed as a complementary alternative for chronic pain; understanding its properties and its neurobiological bases is urgent. We show a phenomenological investigation of a woman who has lived 20 years with chronic pain. The inquiry involved her experience of the context in which she listens to music, the intensity and quality of pain, body mapping, memories, emotions, and cognition. The participant listens to music for different reasons, such as pain and anxiety relief, motivation to exercise, and quality of sleep, but all seem to revolve around different strategies for pain management. Experiences in physiological and cognitive aspects included perceived restorative sleep that may have improved the participant’s general wellbeing and improved cognitive and motor performance as well as communication skills. The music enabled the participant not only to relieve pain but also withdrawal effects after discontinuing her opioid-based treatment. These effects may encompass endogenous opioid and dopamine mechanisms involving natural analgesia associated with pleasurable experiences. Future studies could consider phenomenological case studies and therapeutic accompaniment to reorient subjective properties of pain and expand quantitative and qualitative knowledge for more comprehensive reports on music and analgesia.

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Beyond Pain Scales: A Critical Phenomenology of the Expression of Pain

Cited by 12 publications

References 53 publications

Pain through the perspective of art and creativity: insights from the Unmasking Pain project

Pain through the perspective of art and creativity: insights from the Unmasking Pain project

Understanding pain in modern society: insights from attitudes to pain in the Medieval Period

Case Report: “I got my brain back” A patient’s experience with music-induced analgesia for chronic pain

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