Abstract
Chronic pain patients often miss receiving acknowledgement for the multidimensional struggles they face with their specific conditions. People suffering from chronic pain experience a type of invisibility that is also borne by other chronically ill people and their respective medical conditions. However, chronic pain patients face both passive and active exclusion from social participation in activities like family interactions or workplace inclusion. Although such aspects are discussed in the debates lead by the bio-psycho-social model of pain, there seems to be a lack of a distinct interest in assessing more specifically the social aspects regarding chronic pain. As a result, the social aspects have yet to be taken into a more thorough theoretical consideration of chronic pain and to be practically implemented to help affected patients. By addressing chronic pain patients’ struggle for recognition, this paper attempts to shed light on some of these social aspects. We base this attempt on a theoretical framework that combines patients’ statements with an adaptation of Axel Honneth’s social-philosophical work on recognition. Thus, this paper tries to make a suggestion on how the bio-psycho-social model of pain can live up to its name by helping to address more adequately some of the more neglected aspects in chronic pain patients’ suffering than has been possible to date.
Highlights
Chronic pain patients’ reports about their conditions and experiences reveal that forms of misunderstanding, rejection, and stigmatization greatly shape their suffering
Honneth’s implemented terminological pair of disrespect and recognition enables more adequate access to these negative social experiences, and provides the basis to set up normative obligations on the various social levels, which are “grounded in concrete social experiences rather than abstractly formulated moral principles or principles that are derived a priori and applied to the world.” (Wilhelm 2021: 53) In the following we first, want to highlight some of the social problems chronic patients face due
This article aimed to present in more detail the social aspects of chronic pain that are acknowledged in the biopsycho-social model of pain, but have not yet been profoundly elaborated
Summary
Chronic pain patients’ reports about their conditions and experiences reveal that forms of misunderstanding, rejection, and stigmatization greatly shape their suffering. Patients face these experiences of ostracism and isolation in various social constellations. These occur at three levels: privately, within patients’ own immediate surroundings of family, friends or colleagues; institutionally, through interactions within doctors’ or therapists’ offices, public administrations, and/or insurance agencies; and at the societal level where, for example, a patient’s condition puts constraints on their ability. Honneth’s implemented terminological pair of disrespect (or disregard, misrecognition) and recognition enables more adequate access to these negative social experiences, and provides the basis to set up normative obligations on the various social levels, which are “grounded in concrete social experiences rather than abstractly formulated moral principles or principles that are derived a priori and applied to the world.” (Wilhelm 2021: 53) In the following we first, want to highlight some of the social problems chronic patients face due
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