The pain chronicles cures, myths, mysteries, prayers, diaries, brain scan, healing, and the science of suffering

• Main Author: Thernstrom, Melanie 1964- (Author)
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: New York Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2010
• Edition: first edition
• Subjects: Pain > Personal Narrative > etiology; Chronic Disease > Personal Narratives > psychology; Chronic Disease > Personal Narratives > therapy; Pain Management > Personal Narratives; Pain > Personal Narratives > psychology
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.

 In "The Pain Chronicles", a singular and deeply humane work, Melanie Thernstrom traces conceptions of pain throughout the ages - from ancient Babylonian pain-banishing spells to modern brain imaging - to reveal the elusive, mysterious nature of pain itself. Interweaving first-person reflections on her own battle with chronic pain, incisive reportage from leading-edge pain clinics and medical research, and insights from a wide range of disciplines - science, history, religion, philosophy, anthropology, literature, and art - Thernstrom shows that when dealing with pain we are neither as advanced as we imagine nor as helpless as we may fear. Both a personal meditation and an intellectual exploration, "The Pain Chronicles" illuminates and makes sense of the all-too-human experience of pain - and confronts with extraordinary grace and empathy its peculiar traits, its harrowing effects, and its various antidotes.