Note Text: 1102 Marcel Proust

The French novelist, Marcel Proust, noted that 'Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed: to kindness, to knowledge we make promises only: pain we obey.'

Melzack, R. and Wall, P. D., "The Challenge of Pain (Reprint of 1988 edition)", Penguin Books, 2008, 34

Note Text: 246 Pain withdrawal

As people with pain withdraw from society they lose their jobs, alienate family and friends, and become isolated. They may become enmeshed in a legal system that prolongs and compounds their distress. Pain affects their ability to sleep, to function, and compromises the quality of all aspects of their lives. In this....

Turk, Dennis, and Melzack, Ronald, "Handbook of Pain Assessment", The Guildford Press, 2011, 188-9

Note Text: 1387 Like diabetes or asthma

It is best to think of chronic pain as a disease similar to diabetes or asthma. In the absence of a cure, people with pain have to manage their symptoms over extended periods.

Examination of the outcomes achieved by various pain treatments, moreover, indicates that there is considerable variation in patients' respon....

Turk, Dennis C., and Flor, H., "The Cognitive-Behavioral Approach to Pain Management", Chapter 42 of McMahon et al. 2013, 2013

Note Text: 1619 Always Lift Him Up

[Relevant to section 638] Always Lift Him Up When a fellow has the blues and feels discouraged And there’s nothing else but trouble all his life When he’s always grumbled at and never happy Living with a scolding aggravating wife If he’s sick and tired of life and takes to drinking Do not pass him by, don’t greet him w....

Hangartner, Ross, "Personal note", Anon, 2015

Note Text: 1622 Categorizing invisible impairments

Elliot, as I will refer to the patient, was then in his thirties. No longer capable of holding a job, he was living in the custody of a sibling and the pressing issue was that he was being denied payment of disability benefits. For all the world to see, Elliot was an intelligent, skilled, and able-bodied man who ought t....

Damasio, Antonio R., "Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain", Penguin Books, 1994, 34

Note Text: 1100 Diagnosis vs psychogenesis

It is clear that we must recognize the psychological contribution to pain, but we must maintain a balanced view of it. The term 'psychogenic' assumes that medical diagnosis is so perfect that all organic causes of pain can be detected; regrettably, we are far from such infallibility....

Convincing evidence that chro....

Melzack, R. and Wall, P. D., "The Challenge of Pain (Reprint of 1988 edition)", Penguin Books, 2008, 31-2

Note Text: 1775 Pain distorts interoception

[Interoception provides an ongoing reading of "how we are." See, e.g., Dimasio. When pain dominates interoception, it dominates other perceptions of our state, changing our sense of ourselves.]

Van Der Kolk, Bessel, "The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma", Penguin Books, 2015, 95