![]() ![]() The next phase of my research took me to various institutions and experts in Vienna. It is while talking that meaning is attributed - which, to her judgement, is the central aspect of pain. ![]() It is constructed in social situations, in talking about it with peers, family members, doctors, etc. Pain, she argued, is a communicative, interactive, culturally and socially influenced phenomenon. Dr Lalouschek stated that ‘there is no language of pain ’ this expression (“language of pain”) is to be seen as a metaphor.ĭr Sator emphasi s ed the constructive character of pain, and its quality to demand an attribution of meaning. He found that there are mainly two different ways or styles how pain usually is described: as an agent (the pain comes and goes, it attacks), or as a possession (I have this headache.). There is no external point of reference : pain is an inner experience, meaning that language is our only means of access. Professor Menz explained to me that pain is idiosyncratic. The assemblages as part of this exposition present the results of these investigations and reconstruct different perspectives on PAIN as an EXISTENTIAL PHENOMENON.īetween Agony and Ecstasy: Investigations into the Meaning of Pain -Īfter I had decided to go into the field to find out more about the meaning of pain and how it is communicated, I first conducted interviews with three linguists who have conducted research on the subject of pain and language, and have also published a book on this topic: Professor Florian Menz and Dr Johanna Lalouschek from the Linguistic Institute of the University of Vienna , and Dr Marlene Sator, who is also one of the authors of the afore mentioned book, Sprechen über Schmerzen ( Talking About Pains). I conducted methodical observations in the casualty departments of two Viennese hospitals and developed my own method of "self-reflective observation in the mode of seeing/feeling". The next step of my project consisted in going into the field to look at, imagine and feel into pain. These poetical/pictorial categories differ profoundly from pain categories as they are to be found in common pain questionnaires: They refer to the existential dimension of pain and do not differentiate between physical and mental pain in order to overcome the myth of this dichotomy. In the course of my literary research for this project I generated 10 PAIN CATEGORIES that I derived from poems, philosophical and literary texts on pain, and my own experiences. Pains are crushing, deeply distressing, showing us our limitations – but also our capability to go beyond our limits, to outgrow ourselves. Pains cut into our net of habits, and even the slightest pain causes a transformation. Pains are moving, alluring us to world-making-activities, attuning our bodies with other bodies and therefore putting us in relation to others. ![]()
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