 Schools of thought on painMariet A. E. Vrancken Social Science & Medicine, 1989, vol. 29, issue 3, 435-444 Abstract: Through an analysis of the way pain specialists speak about pain and deal with pain patients, the prevailing approaches to pain in eight academic pain centers in the Netherlands have been traced and studied. Major categories for distinguishing between the diverse approaches to pain are: theoretical statements about pain, definitions of pain patients, statements about therapy, and about recovery. On the basis of these categories, five ideal typical schools or approaches have been deduced. After a brief description of these schools, according to the above categories, and from the point of view of an ideal typical adherent (actor) of each school, I proceed to an in-depth inquiry into the major basic assumptions of these approaches with respect to their portrayal of man and the role of medicine. Finally, envisaging the phenomenon of pain within the context of everyday life, a new model is proposed for understanding the experience of pain; this also sheds light on the medical problem of patients with 'intractable' pain. Date: 1989 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:29:y:1989:i:3:p:435-444 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.