The Culture of Pain

Rating:
Summary: A splendidly rich set of reflections on living with pai
Review: This is an extraordinary book, serious and varied and passionate; I recommend it to anyone who has encountered pain, and would be happy if all doctors had to read it in medical school. It argues that modern society no longer has any effective ways of coping with suffering - especially chronic pain -, of finding meaning in it, and explores some of the ways people in the past learned to live with - and learn from - pain, pain understood not as an enemy attack on human lives which ought to be pain-free, but as a part of life which must be lived with and which can be meaningful in itself, not just a deprivation of meaning.