Academic Writing: What Can We Do About Pain?

IMPORTANT: It is essential that you include in your essay specific references to the articles in the reading set, and that you attribute any material that you summarize, quote, or paraphrase to its source. Base your essay on the information contained in the set of readings, not on your own experience, on outside readings, or on courses you have taken. This essay must be at least five (5) full pages (double spaced in 10 or 12 point type) Due by 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 30th, 2016. ---- In their excerpts, Woolf and Fields describe physical processes understood to underlie pain. But other sections of this reading set strongly suggest, as Fields himself writes that “all pain is mental.” (13) The evidence for this “mental” view of pain includes research that emotionally-associated pain is essentially the same as pain with clear physical causes. Is pain physical, mental, or both? In your essay, weigh the evidence of all five (5) essays in the reading set (See attached). Be sure to discuss different forms of treatment for pain, successful and unsuccessful, discussed in the reading set. In your analysis, be sure to explain what pain is, and how it works neurologically. You also may wish to address the following: What are the effects of music, massage, and exercise upon the experience of pain? What do these effects suggest about the nature of pain? What is the role of the brain in perception of pain? Why, according to Fields, does the meaning of pain affect the experience of pain? Why does symbolic representation have an effect upon the experience of pain? Why does a person's emotional state have an effect upon the experience of pain? In addition, define and employ key terms that seem to be central to the arguments of your sources and, therefore, to your argument as well. Primary among these key terms is “pain.” Other key terms that might help you with your argument are: chronic pain, pain management, analgesia, nociceptive pain, protective pain, maladaptive pain, somatic pain, emotional pain, non-pharmacological intervention, meaning; symbolic representation.