A World of Pain

When we undertake the project of a phenomenology of pain, and even a deconstruction of the experience of pain, we discover that pain is not merely something that is felt by a subject, but rather pain—and chronic pain, especially—causes the subject to live in a new world. This essay is an investigation of that world. Moving from questions of mind/body dualism to whether or not pains are subjective representations of some material-physical state of the body, a philosophical and physiological analysis of pain is undertaken in an attempt to show how a world of pain emerges and then functions once established. Along the way, issues concerning the measurement of pain, the value of pain, the mystery of the phantom limb in pain, the use of placebos to treat pain, and the question of whether or not pain is necessarily a private experience are taken up, ultimately leading to the conclusion that an established world of pain can usher in a collapse of the distinction between subjects and their pain such that chronic pain sufferers might meaningfully be said to become their pain.