I'm often asked 'what helped with your pain'. Years ago I meant to write a series of posts sharing some notable moments, but life derailed those attempts. Here's another go!
Loving seeing you back and in full flow! I know I've said it before but you're ability to articulate the lived experience is powerful and so appreciated by people that help people in pain.
Love the direct injection of love into the equation and it makes me think of Kübler-Ross talking about primary emotions of love or fear. Fear plays such a big part of ongoing pain. Is it possible to suffer without fear? I'm not sure.
Your piece also reminds me of an essay I think about very often, "Lessons of Motherly Love" by Regina Mara Schwartz, that I think you'll appreciate. It's on the medical ethics of how "quality of life" is measured, particularly at the end of life (and as you well know, pain is central to most measures of life quality, and its relief is what is meant by end-of-life "palliative" care), and asks if the ability to give and receive love shouldn't be fundamental to any measure of life quality.
Loving seeing you back and in full flow! I know I've said it before but you're ability to articulate the lived experience is powerful and so appreciated by people that help people in pain.
Love the direct injection of love into the equation and it makes me think of Kübler-Ross talking about primary emotions of love or fear. Fear plays such a big part of ongoing pain. Is it possible to suffer without fear? I'm not sure.
Hope you feel the love being sent your way xx
Amazing, Jo. Thank you. There’s no doubt that you love. You must also know that you are loved, by many, around the world. X
I really enjoyed reading this, thank you for revisiting it and publishing it. I've been a working with persistent pain patients for 25 years (an acupuncture/dry needling specialist), and I couldn't agree more with you and Lorimer. In the context of healthcare (and my own pain coaching work), it reminds me that, as Alison Gopnik and others have argued, pain is a relationship (see https://direct.mit.edu/daed/article/152/1/58/114998/Caregiving-in-Philosophy-Biology-amp-Political and https://direct.mit.edu/daed/article/152/1/70/115005/Care-Is-a-Relationship).
Your piece also reminds me of an essay I think about very often, "Lessons of Motherly Love" by Regina Mara Schwartz, that I think you'll appreciate. It's on the medical ethics of how "quality of life" is measured, particularly at the end of life (and as you well know, pain is central to most measures of life quality, and its relief is what is meant by end-of-life "palliative" care), and asks if the ability to give and receive love shouldn't be fundamental to any measure of life quality.
Apparently, the whole article is only available to subscribers, but you can listen to a reading of it on the journal site, or I'd be happy to share a copy with you (https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/the-post-modern-self/articles/lessons-of-mother-love).
-Jonah Hershowitz