Putting Pain to Paper

Endometriosis and the Documentation of Suffering

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4834741
AutoresEmma Whelan (0000-0002-5276-1907, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada,, autor correspondente)
Ano2003
Volume7
Fascículo4
Páginas463-482
Data de publicação2003-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHealth An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health Illness and Medicine (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1363-4593 • E-ISSN: 1461-7196
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/13634593030074005
OpenAlexW2130964851
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas25
Referências citadas46

Although the elusive and subjective nature of pain has been examined in compelling ways in health studies, the implications for systems of pain documentation and measurement remain relatively unexplored. Two systems for the documentation of pain symptoms in women with endometriosis are examined, one developed by a gynaecological association and the other by a woman with the disease. All pain documentation systems must contend with a fundamental problem: that they permit the comparison only of accounts of pain, not of pains themselves. These two instruments shift attention away from the pain itself to evaluations of the perspectives of those accounting for and evaluating pain. It is argued that systems of pain measurement and documentation, rather than offering objective readings of pain, must be seen as the products of epistemological communities with particular interests, aims and methods which affect the construction of pain and its subjects

Disease · Documentation · Endometriosis · Gynecology · Pain assessment · Pain management · Pathology · Physical therapy · Communication · Computer Science · Education, Leadership, and Health Research · Endometriosis Research and Treatment · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Medicine · Psychology