Suffering

The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines it as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage." As pain is not the sensory nociception itself, but rather its individual interpretation, pain is a highly personal experience and influenced by many different factors.

This definition is suitable for the experience of physical pain, but does not take emotional pain into account.

The Oxford Dictionaries describe pain as a "highly unpleasant physical sensation caused by illness or injury" or as "mental suffering or distress" and the Cambridge Dictionary defines pain as a "feeling of physical suffering caused by injury or illness."

Both of these definitions equate pain and suffering, missing an important conceptual difference.

What is pain?

What is suffering?

In history, suffering has predominantly been a topic among philosophers and theologists and still is today. But we think of it as an important experience relevant to medicine, psychological care and personal wellbeing. An experience which we consider to be relatively neglected by life sciences, despite significant research into pain and anaesthetics.

Since the experience of physical and emotional pain does not ultimately lead to foundational experiences suffering, it is important to recognise the critical distinction between pain and suffering - and this is an area we want to understand further.
So far, we see suffering as arising from a combination of:

• the strength of physical and emotional pain experienced by the person

• the strength of aversion to that pain, or the desire to avoid the pain

• the ability to cope with the pain

What do we suggest?

We propose an interdisciplinary effort to better understand and mitigate the causes of human suffering. We think that a better understanding of these links will help us all to make better decisions - from the individual through care services to public policy choices.

Our State of Suffering 2024 report aims to bring together multiple academic fields and angles to start to bring research teams together around this topic.