An amygdalar neural ensemble that encodes the unpleasantness of pain, 2019, Corder et al.

It was me who asked Trish to make a thread for this - due to myself being too brain fogged to work out how to title the thread etc.

I came across Cort's article today and it made me rather uncomfortable. Felt a bit too close to the gaslighting sort of "pain isn't bad, it's just how you respond to it emotionally that's the problem". And the old biopsychosocial crap.

I am lucky that I do not usually suffer with significant pain as part of my ME. My experiences of pain are mostly limited to the things which most humans encounter at some point in their lives.

Having a somewhat philosophical disposition, I have sometimes found myself wondering "what is bad about pain", and intentionally rubbing on a sore toe to try to work out what exactly feels bad about it. Certainly up to a point, a low level of pain can just be "that's an interesting sensation, but I'd like it to stop so that I can focus my attention better on other things".But when pain starts to reach a higher level, it becomes "no that is definitely unpleasant and I want it to stop". And when in severe pain (something I've only experienced a few brief times in my life), it becomes "PLEASE GOD MAKE IT STOP RIGHT NOW".

So this research does interest me in terms of that. But it also troubles me because it sounds gaslighty especially towards people who have severe pain.

I mean. The most severe pain makes people black out. It's not a biopsychosocial phenomenon.

Can you look a torture victim in the eye and tell them that the problem with physical torture is how their brain responds to it, not with what is done to them physically?