 | Constructing Pain: Historical, psychological and critical perspectives Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Health and Social Care; Medicine Dentistry Nursing & Allied Health; Social Sciences; Nursing; Nursing; Psychological Science; Allied Health; Health & Society; Health Conditions; Social Work and Social Policy; Anthropology - Soc Sci; Biopsychology; Health Psychology; Psychology and Nursing; Critical Psychology; Palliative and Supportive Care; Sociology of Health and Illness; Chronic Diseases; End of Life and Long Term Care; Religion and Spirituality; Social & Cultural Anthropology; Everyone experiences pain, whether it's emotional or physical, chronic or acute. Pain is part of what it means to be human, and so an understanding of how we relate to it as individuals - as well as cultures and societies - is fundamental to who we are. In this important new book, the first in Routledge's new Critical Approaches to Health series, Robert Kugelmann provides an accessible and insightful overview of how the concept of pain has been understood historically, psychologically, and anthropologically. Charting changes in how, after the development of modern painkillers, pain became a problem that could be solved, the book articulates how the possibilities for living with pain have changed over the last two hundred years. Incorporating research conducted by the author himself, the book provides both a holistic conception of pain and an understanding of what it means to people experiencing it today. Including critical reflections in each chapter, Constructing Pain offers a comprehensive and enlightening treatment of an important issue to us all and will be fascinating reading for students and researchers within health psychology, healthcare, and nursing. Robert Kugelmann is a professor of psychology at the University of Dallas, USA. He is the author of Stress (1992) and Psychology and Catholicism (2011), as well as articles in the history of psychology and in health psychology. |
