Pain and Its Transformations. The Interface of Biology and Culture

Abstract

1. Introduction Sarah Coakley 2. Opening Remarks Arthur Kleinman Response from Anne Harrington Part I: Pain at the Interface of Biology and Culture 3. Deconstructing Pain--A Deterministic Dissection of the Molecular Basis of Pain Clifford Woolf 4. Setting The Stage For Pain: Allegorical Tales From Neuroscience Howard Fields Response from Anne Harrington: Is Pain Differentially Embodied? Response from Elaine Scarry: Pain and the Embodiment of Culture Discussion: Is There Life Left in the Gate Control Theory? Discussion: The Success of Reductionism in Pain Treatment Part II: Beyond Coping: Religious Practices of Transformation 5. Palliative or Intensification? Pain and Christian Contemplation in the Spirituality of the 16th-Century Carmelites Sarah Coakley 6. Pain and the Suffering Consciousness: The Alleviation of Suffering in Buddhist Discourse Luis Gomez Response from Arthur Kleinman: The Incommensurable Richness of Experience Response from Jon Levenson: The Theology of Pain and Suffering in the Jewish Tradition Discussion: The Relaxation Response: Can it Explain Religious Transformation? Discussion: Reductionism and the Separation of Suffering and Pain Discussion: The Instrumentality of Pain in Christianity and Buddhism Part III: Grief and Pain: The Mediation of Pain in Music 7. Voice, Metaphysics, and Community: Pain and Transformation in the Finnish Karelian Ritual Lament Elizabeth Tolbert 8. Music, Trancing and the Absence of Pain Judith Becker Response from John Brust: Music as Ecstasy and Music as Trance Response from Kay Shelemay: Thinking About Music and Pain Discussion: The Presentation and Representation of Emotion in Music Discussion: Neurobiological Views of Music, Emotion, and the Body Discussion: Ritual and Expectation Part IV: Pain, Ritual and the Somatomoral: Beyond the Individual 9. Pain and Humanity in the Confucian Learning of the Heart-and-Mind Tu Weiming Response from Laurence Kirmayer: Reflections from Psychiatry on Emergent Mind and Empathy 10. Painful Memories: Ritual and the Transformation of Community Trauma Jennifer Cole Response from Stanley Tambiah: Collective Memory as a Witness to Collective Pain Discussion: Pain, Healing, and Memory Part V: Pain as Isolation or Community? Literary and Aesthetic Representations 11. Physical Pain and the Ground of Creating Elaine Scarry 12. The Poetics of Anaesthesia: Representations of Pain in the Literatures of Classical India Martha Ann Selby Response from Richard Wolf: Doubleness, matam, and Muharram Drumming in South Asia Discussion: The Dislocation, Representation, and Communication of Pain Part VI: When Is Pain Not Suffering and Suffering Not Pain?: Self, Ethics and Transcendence 13. On the Cultural Mediation of Pain Laurence Kirmayer Discussion: The Notion of Face 14. The Place of Pain in the Space of Good and Evil Nicholas Wolterstorff Response from Charles Hallisey: The Problem of Action 15. Afterword Sarah Coakley