Psychology 2036A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Ronald Melzack, Phantom Limb, Chronic Pain

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2036A/B
• Professor: Doug Hazlewood

Document Summary

Pain can be so insistent that it overwhelms other basic needs. We live with minor pains all the time that are critical for survival; provide low-level feedback about the functioning of our body; basis for making minor adjustments. Pain is the symptom most likely to lead an individual to seek treatment. Relationship bw pain and the severity of an underlying problem can be weak. Dread of not being able to reduce suffering arouses more anxiety than the prospect of surgery, the loss of a limb, or death. People living with chronic pain are 2x as likely to commit suicide. Pain is fundamentally a psychological experience, and the degree to which it is felt and how incapacitation it is depends on how its interpreted: howard beecher (1959); rst to recognize this; soldiers pain vs. civilians pain. Members of some cultures report pain sooner and react more intensely than individuals of other cultures.