Culture and the Metaphoric Mediation of Pain

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2394675
AutoresL J Kirmayer (0000-0002-6228-1739, McGill University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Volumen45
Número2
Páginas318-338
Fecha de publicación2008-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaTranscultural Psychiatry (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1363-4615 • E-ISSN: 1461-7471
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1363461508089769
PMID18562497
OpenAlexW2058636452
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas22
Referencias citadas39

Although pain appears to be one of the most basic and obdurate sensations its meaning and experience are richly elaborated in many cultural traditions. The study of the cognitive processes that underlie metaphor provides a model of how sensory and affective qualities of bodily events are translated into symptom experience. Basic sensorimotor experiences provide the conceptual vocabulary used to build up more complex and abstract models. These are elaborated within specific traditions, communities, or local worlds in ways that fit with overarching cultural models. In turn, culturally elaborated metaphors influence basic cognitive, perceptual and attentional processes that modify sensory processing. This article will consider three sites of the metaphoric mediation of pain experience: bodily posture or stance, facial expression, and the experience of temporal duration. Each of these basic aspects of embodiment gives rise to bodily metaphors that shape the experience and expression of pain. Tracing how metaphoric constructions regulate cognitive affective and attentional processes provides a way to understand the cultural malleability of pain experience

Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Conceptual metaphor · Linguistics · Mediation · Metaphor · Perception · Psychotherapist · Sociology · Action Observation and Synchronization · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Multisensory perception and integration · Neuroscience · Psychology