Pain: A Political History, by Keith Wailoo (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014)

Abstract

The ubiquity of pain as an enduring medical problem reflects Keith Wailoo's argument for its enduring politicization in Pain: A Political History, an investigation of US twentieth-and early twenty-first-century pain policy. Throughout the text, he stresses that pain emerged not as a uniquely medical affair, but rather an issue of morals, ethics, governing, and legality. As a result, legislatures, federal and state courts, as well as patients and medical providers contributed to the issue of managing pain relief technologies and providing monetary support for chronic pain patients through disability insurance benefits. Furthermore, the largely partisan debates surrounding pain policies gave rise to a number of larger issues; pain became a lightning rod for pointed debates regarding trust, ideal citizenship, and consent.