PAINS · Phenomenological Analysis of Ipseity and the Nature of Suffering

Pain is a leading cause of disability globally, with approximately one in five adults across Europe reporting persistent pain that seriously impacts their lives. The growing personal and societal costs of pain have resulted in strong calls for innovative research to better understand the nature of pain-related suffering and how it can be effectively relieved. Indeed, there have been important developments characterizing pain-related suffering, including its central feature: disruption of one’s sense of self. Disruption of the self may include a loss or alteration of one’s self-identity due to pain (e.g., loss of a valued work role or activity), feeling overwhelmed or consumed by pain, or a painful body part feeling alien or disconnected from oneself. However, there is now a clear gap in the current scientific literature on pain-related suffering: little research has explored how one’s sense of self may be optimally restored or reconstructed through clinical interventions or self-management strategies. Before we can conduct this kind of empirical research, we first need to develop new pain-relevant research methods and theory to examine selfhood restoration and reconstruction. First, this project will develop and implement new qualitative methods to study how clinical interventions and self-management strategies deemed successful by pain sufferers have restored or reconstructed their sense of self. Combined with a robust synthesis of literature and expert consultation, these findings will enable the development of the first comprehensive and empirically grounded framework that specifies how various aspects of the self may be disrupted, restored, or reconstructed. This project will conclude with a series of evidence-based recommendations to help healthcare professionals collaborate with their patients to better target facets of the self to alleviate suffering.