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Pain: The Science and Culture of Why We Hurt
A compulsively readable explorer’s journal of the hidden territory of pain, as profound and insightful as the work of Oliver Sacks and Sherwin Nuland.
A bee sting on the lips was the tiny lance that set Marni Jackson off on a four-year exploration of the many ways in which we suffer. Exiled for an afternoon in the country called pain, she realized that no one had the words to describe her condition although it was as familiar as a headache. A fusion of emotion, nerve and memory, pain inspired only questions.
“Why do we still distinguish between mental pain and physical pain,” she asks, “when pain is always an emotional experience? Why is pain so poorly understood, especially in a century of self-scrutiny? Hasn’t anyone noticed the embarrassing fact that science is about to clone a human being but still can’t cure the pain of a bad back?” North Americans spend $24 billion a year on pain relief while chronic pain is on the rise. If pain is the reason why most people visit the doctor, why are most doctors so bad at addressing the problem of suffering?
The Fifth Vital Sign dives back into the history of pain and forward into the possibilities of pain genetics, bringing us stories of both people in pain and the pain eccentrics and artists, wrestlers and writers, ministers and mothers, psychologists and philosophers, nurses and doctors. Marni Jackson has created a definitive, heartfelt, funny and beguiling portrait of a condition we can’t live with -- and can’t live without.
A bee sting on the lips was the tiny lance that set Marni Jackson off on a four-year exploration of the many ways in which we suffer. Exiled for an afternoon in the country called pain, she realized that no one had the words to describe her condition although it was as familiar as a headache. A fusion of emotion, nerve and memory, pain inspired only questions.
“Why do we still distinguish between mental pain and physical pain,” she asks, “when pain is always an emotional experience? Why is pain so poorly understood, especially in a century of self-scrutiny? Hasn’t anyone noticed the embarrassing fact that science is about to clone a human being but still can’t cure the pain of a bad back?” North Americans spend $24 billion a year on pain relief while chronic pain is on the rise. If pain is the reason why most people visit the doctor, why are most doctors so bad at addressing the problem of suffering?
The Fifth Vital Sign dives back into the history of pain and forward into the possibilities of pain genetics, bringing us stories of both people in pain and the pain eccentrics and artists, wrestlers and writers, ministers and mothers, psychologists and philosophers, nurses and doctors. Marni Jackson has created a definitive, heartfelt, funny and beguiling portrait of a condition we can’t live with -- and can’t live without.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
12 people are currently reading
248 people want to read
About the author
Marni Jackson
10 books15 followersA Toronto writer who has won numerous National Magazine Awards for her features, humour and social commentary, Marni Jackson is the author of three nonfiction books: “The Mother Zone”; “Pain: The Science and Culture of Why We Hurt” and “Home Free: The Myth of the Empty Nest”. The bestselling “Mother Zone” was nominated for the Stephen Leacock Award, and her book on the nature of pain was a finalist for The Writers’ Trust Pearson Nonfiction Prize.
Marni’s stories have appeared in The Walrus, Brick, Eighteen Bridges, Toronto Life, Explore, Saturday Night, Outside, Rolling Stone, The London Times, Utne Reader, and others. Formerly the book/publishing columnist for Globe & Mail and a senior editor at The Walrus. Longtime association with the Banff Centre, where she served as Rogers Chair of the Literary Journalism program, and is on the faculty of the Mountain and Wilderness Writing Program. Creative writing instructor at Ryerson, Banff and U. of Guelph/Humber College. She is a member of the Al Purdy A Frame Association, which is restoring the poet’s Prince Edward County A Frame as a writer’s retreat.
Marni’s stories have appeared in The Walrus, Brick, Eighteen Bridges, Toronto Life, Explore, Saturday Night, Outside, Rolling Stone, The London Times, Utne Reader, and others. Formerly the book/publishing columnist for Globe & Mail and a senior editor at The Walrus. Longtime association with the Banff Centre, where she served as Rogers Chair of the Literary Journalism program, and is on the faculty of the Mountain and Wilderness Writing Program. Creative writing instructor at Ryerson, Banff and U. of Guelph/Humber College. She is a member of the Al Purdy A Frame Association, which is restoring the poet’s Prince Edward County A Frame as a writer’s retreat.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 4, 2016
This book is a journalist investigation not a scientific research -- this is important to remember when you read it. And when you read it you on one hand get a handful of useful facts and references plus some of the author's insights that are good in themselves. This is the up side.
On the down side though the book seems to be a bit uneven (probably a result of taking too long to write and a general complexity of subject) and contains some unnecessary details that it could perfectly do without to my taste such as musing about a menu in a cafe and natural wonders of a summer house. (The author is a advocate of humanity and this was probably an attempt to make it more alive - and probably other readers will judge it differently).
Still the book contains a lot of highly useful facts and may become a good introduction in to the subject of modern pain management for anybody who is either not pain professional but still has a number of unanswered questions (and seeking to prove his or her own amatory's hypothses) or even maybe for those who are about to plunge the profession that is related to pain management. So despite of all the shortcomings it is 5 out of 5.
On the down side though the book seems to be a bit uneven (probably a result of taking too long to write and a general complexity of subject) and contains some unnecessary details that it could perfectly do without to my taste such as musing about a menu in a cafe and natural wonders of a summer house. (The author is a advocate of humanity and this was probably an attempt to make it more alive - and probably other readers will judge it differently).
Still the book contains a lot of highly useful facts and may become a good introduction in to the subject of modern pain management for anybody who is either not pain professional but still has a number of unanswered questions (and seeking to prove his or her own amatory's hypothses) or even maybe for those who are about to plunge the profession that is related to pain management. So despite of all the shortcomings it is 5 out of 5.
March 10, 2015
Although a few years old, this book gives good insight to alternative therapies to pain and some psychological reasoning as to why some of us seem more open to the excessive degrees of pain that others might not! Definitely a worthwhile read and one I am keeping for reference in the future.
July 15, 2016
Marni's deep insight into the pain educates and entertains like no other book on physical pain ever.
Worth a reread
Worth a reread
May 15, 2022
Alleviate pain as best you can without taking away life
August 2, 2017
Patchy and painful in places!
Read
January 22, 20162003
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews