Pain: A Culturally Informed Experience
I was raised in North America - a culture and society in which the education emphasizes knowledge about science, its methods and its principles. The scientific method of understanding, coupled with the rudimentary knowledge that I was taught in high school biology, resulted in my conceptualization o...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2002-01-01
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| Series: | Pain Research and Management |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2002/198365 |
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| author | David Ng |
| author_facet | David Ng |
| author_sort | David Ng |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | I was raised in North America - a culture and society in which the education emphasizes knowledge about science, its methods and its principles. The scientific method of understanding, coupled with the rudimentary knowledge that I was taught in high school biology, resulted in my conceptualization of pain as an objective truth. Pain, as I believed for a long time, was a bodily sensation with an expression that was more or less universal; to me, pain was simply the sensation that the brain experiences as a response to noxious stimuli. The pain sensation protects us from things that can hurt us; it is a warning sign that something in us is physically amiss. Thus, everybody physically reacts to the touch of a flame or experiences abdominal pain when there is appendicitis. Even now, in medical school, the pain education that I have received so far has only involved the physiology or mechanics of pain. Pain, as a physiological condition, operates independent of cultural context. However, in considering the experience of pain that my grandmother has endured, I realize that pain is much more than a mechanical bodily sensation effected by the nervous system in response to stimulus. Pain is a human experience, and as such, it is highly individualized and subjective. The proper diagnosis, care and treatment of pain necessitate a holistic understanding of pain, its physiology and its context (1). |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-cb5b2412e49d4fdaabd6ff3cf1a7e0ea |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1203-6765 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2002-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Pain Research and Management |
| spelling | doaj-art-cb5b2412e49d4fdaabd6ff3cf1a7e0ea2025-02-03T01:02:54ZengWileyPain Research and Management1203-67652002-01-017210911110.1155/2002/198365Pain: A Culturally Informed ExperienceDavid NgI was raised in North America - a culture and society in which the education emphasizes knowledge about science, its methods and its principles. The scientific method of understanding, coupled with the rudimentary knowledge that I was taught in high school biology, resulted in my conceptualization of pain as an objective truth. Pain, as I believed for a long time, was a bodily sensation with an expression that was more or less universal; to me, pain was simply the sensation that the brain experiences as a response to noxious stimuli. The pain sensation protects us from things that can hurt us; it is a warning sign that something in us is physically amiss. Thus, everybody physically reacts to the touch of a flame or experiences abdominal pain when there is appendicitis. Even now, in medical school, the pain education that I have received so far has only involved the physiology or mechanics of pain. Pain, as a physiological condition, operates independent of cultural context. However, in considering the experience of pain that my grandmother has endured, I realize that pain is much more than a mechanical bodily sensation effected by the nervous system in response to stimulus. Pain is a human experience, and as such, it is highly individualized and subjective. The proper diagnosis, care and treatment of pain necessitate a holistic understanding of pain, its physiology and its context (1).http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2002/198365 |
| spellingShingle | David Ng Pain: A Culturally Informed Experience Pain Research and Management |
| title | Pain: A Culturally Informed Experience |
| title_full | Pain: A Culturally Informed Experience |
| title_fullStr | Pain: A Culturally Informed Experience |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pain: A Culturally Informed Experience |
| title_short | Pain: A Culturally Informed Experience |
| title_sort | pain a culturally informed experience |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2002/198365 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT davidng painaculturallyinformedexperience |