Current research suggests that pain is a relatively common phenomenon with 60-90% of patients presenting to emergency departments reporting pain (e.g., chest pain, trauma, extremity fractures and migraine headache) that require treatment [Hogan, S.L., 2005. Patient satisfaction with pain management in the emergency department. Advanced Emergency Nursing Journal 27(4), 284-294]. This article exp...

An analysis of the music therapy literature yields numerous reports to support the role of music in the alleviation of pain in palliative care. Four theoretical perspectives that support why many patients report reduced pain sensation after music therapy include: the psychological relationship between music and pain; the psychophysiological theory; spinal mechanisms involved in pain modulation;...

In this chapter, I set the stage for the type identity theories given in Chapter Two and Chapter Three by assessing type identity theory of mind. There are five reasons to prefer type identity theory of mind to dualism: it has greater explanatory power; it is more respectful of philosophical and folk intuitions about the causal powers of qualia; it is simpler, it is supported by causal closure ...

On the bases of Hilgard's neodissociation theory and Spano's (1982) sociocognitive theory, volunteers stringently selected for high (N = 10) and low (N = 10) hypnotizability were exposed to a cold pressor pain test during counterbalanced conditions of waking relaxation, distraction, and hypnosis. To better discriminate between hypnosis and distraction conditions, a new distraction procedure was...

When my wife was pregnant, our birthing coach asked the class " What is pain? " I thought I might finally get to display some of my philosophical training, but alas, the correct answer was: " Pain is whatever she says it is. " The coach's " sufferercentric " definition echoes the one offered by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)— " Pain is always subjective " —as well as...

This study examines the changes in self-perception during resolution of an acutely painful neck injury sustained in a motor vehicle accident. We tested predictions from self-discrepancy theory and a model of self-pain enmeshment. Measures of discrepancy between the current (actual) self and both the ideal and feared-for self were predicted to remain stable over a 21-day recovery period whereas ...