Dissertation On Pain Essay, Research Paper

Pain is a universal constant. It is a reaction to anything detrimental to one’s well-being or comfort. In any form of reality, it must exist. Pain is never any easy experience, but it is necessary. After all, can one truly appreciate pleasure without pain? Or realize the relief that comes when pain is absent? Pain also strengthens. Pain increases tolerance for itself, but also allows the body to increase its defenses against injury. It is a warning of injury, and an indication of what shouldn’t be done. And still it cannot be appreciated. In short, pain hurts.Pain exists in both main realms of humanity: the physical and the mental. Physical pain can be very difficult, but it is the easier of the two. In the physical realm, things are black and white. Something hurts, something is injured, and the body takes steps to correct it. There is always the correct path to take, and in most cases, the body can effect repairs automatically. Any assistance that you give it are helpful, but you have very little conscious responsibility for the reparations. Most physical pain heals, although it can leave permanent damage behind. In the end, though, it is the emotions that come from the physical pain that hurt more than the actual sensation.Emotional pain is far more injurious. For it is here that we lose our objectivity. No matter how much we put the two together, our actual being does not lie in the body. The body is not US in the truest sense. It is simple the vessel in which we travel. Any injury that happens to the body is outside our actual consciousness, and therefore separated to a certain extent. Certainly, the body is a part of us, but it is rather an extension of that consciousness that lies in the brain, the two of them working in sync. Emotional pain hits us where we live, literally. It is inside where we can’t reach, and what we don’t truly understand. The eye sees not itself, and so it is with the brain. Logical conclusion from emotional pain is impossible, because our logic is affected by our emotional center. We cannot observe the brain from its exterior, and so our efficiency in dealing with the problem is greatly impaired. To make matters worse, there is no black and white. No matter has been transposed, no physical wound has been created that can be easily sealed. There is no clear path to take that will rescue us from this agony. Factors too numerous to truly contemplate swirl through the psyche, coming within grasp and then disappearing, leaving us with no recollection of any help they might have rendered. We have no way of judging what might help, and we are stuck with the superficial ideas of society. We are told by people with more objectivity that time heals all wounds, but how can this really be true? Since we don’t know which direction to move in, how can we make progress along it? The only thing that time truly accomplishes is that it gives our mind time to rationalize. We purposefully forget the cause of our pain, push it back into our minds, and lock it away where it can’t hurt us any more. All pain dulls in time, because our sense for it becomes tired, and we adapt to its presence, making it less sharp. And our mind is vast, with plenty of room to spare for the conflicts that we would rather not face. But what happens if this rationalization is suppressed, purposefully or not, because of control of the mind? Does awareness that the wound will not heal until a solution is reached increase the time in which it lingers? Then it becomes a mental civil war. A conflict of high emotional priority becomes the ultimate puzzle. Is there a way to heal the wound? There must be. The thinking power of the individual wrestles with the emotional wound. The best way to handle a problem like this is to forget it, but that is impossible. Reminders hang everywhere, and we will not allow this to drift to the background. Fine, next answer. Since there is no known way to actively work on the problem, the next effort is for distraction. If we occupy the mind enough, the pain will ease because we don’t think about it. It is a temporary fix. Ok, fine. The pain comes from loss, so maybe we can find a replacement for that which we have lost. That will take time, and may never work out if we can find no replacement. We put that pursuit on a long-term basis, and try the next item. Escape doesn’t seem to work very well. Let’s handle the problem dead on. Can we come to grips with our emotions enough to control them, and make them go away? One can only hope…