Product Code Database
Suffering, or pain in a broad sense,See 'Terminology'. See also the entry 'Pleasure' in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which begins with this paragraph: "Pleasure, in the inclusive usages most important in moral psychology, ethical theory, and the studies of mind, includes all joy and gladnessall our feeling good, or happy. It is often contrasted with similarly inclusive pain or suffering, which is similarly thought of as including all our feeling bad." It should be mentioned that most encyclopedias, like the one mentioned above and Britannica, do not have an article about suffering and describe pain in the physical sense only. may be an experience of unpleasantness or aversion, possibly associated with the perception of harm or threat of harm in an individual.For instance, Wayne Hudson in Historicizing Suffering, Chapter 14 of Perspectives on Human Suffering (Jeff Malpas and Norelle Lickiss, editors, Springer, 2012) : "According to the standard account suffering is a universal human experience described as a negative basic feeling or emotion that involves a subjective character of unpleasantness, aversion, harm or threat of harm to body or mind (Spelman 1997; Cassell 1991)." Suffering is the basic element that makes up the negative valence of affective phenomena. The opposite of suffering is pleasure or happiness.
Suffering is often categorized as physicalExamples of physical suffering: pain of various types, excessive heat, excessive cold, itching, hunger, thirst, nausea, air hunger, sleep deprivation. Other examples are given by L. W. Sumner, on p. 103 of Welfare, Happiness, and Ethics: "Think for a moment of the many physical symptoms which, when persistent, can make our lives miserable: nausea, hiccups, sneezing, dizziness, disorientation, loss of balance, itching, 'pins and needles', 'restless legs', tics, twitching, fatigue, difficulty in breathing, and so on." or mental.Mental suffering can also be called psychological or emotional (see Psychological pain). Examples of mental suffering: depression (mood) / hopelessness, grief, sadness / loneliness / Broken heart, disgust, irritation, anger, jealousy, envy, craving or yearning, frustration, anguish, angst, fear, anxiety / panic, shame / guilt, regret, embarrassment / humiliation, restlessness. It may come in all degrees of intensity, from mild to intolerable. Factors of duration and frequency of occurrence usually compound that of intensity. Attitudes toward suffering may vary widely, in the sufferer or other people, according to how much it is regarded as avoidable or unavoidable, useful or useless, deserved or undeserved.
Suffering occurs in the lives of Sentience beings in numerous manners, often dramatically. As a result, many fields of human activity are concerned with some aspects of suffering. These aspects may include the nature of suffering, its processes, its origin and causes, its meaning and significance, its related personal, social, and cultural behaviors, its remedies, management, and uses.
Qualifiers, such as physical, mental, emotional, and psychological, are often used to refer to certain types of pain or suffering. In particular, mental pain (or suffering) may be used in relationship with physical pain (or suffering) for distinguishing between two wide categories of pain or suffering. A first caveat concerning such a distinction is that it uses physical pain in a sense that normally includes not only the 'typical sensory experience of physical pain' but also other unpleasant bodily experiences including dyspnea, hunger, vestibular suffering, nausea, sleep deprivation, and . A second caveat is that the terms physical or mental should not be taken too literally: physical pain or suffering, as a matter of fact, happens through conscious minds and involves emotional aspects, while mental pain or suffering happens through physical brains and, being an emotion, involves important physiological aspects.
The word unpleasantness, which some people use as a synonym of suffering or pain in the broad sense, may refer to the basic affective dimension of pain (its suffering aspect), usually in contrast with the sensory dimension, as for instance in this sentence: "Pain-unpleasantness is often, though not always, closely linked to both the intensity and unique qualities of the painful sensation."Donald D. Price, Central Neural Mechanisms that Interrelate Sensory and Affective Dimensions of Pain , ‘’Molecular Interventions’’ 2:392–403 (2002). Other current words that have a definition with some similarity to suffering include distress, unhappiness, misery, affliction, woe, ill, discomfort, displeasure, disagreeableness.
In Cynicism suffering is alleviated by achieving mental clarity or lucidity (ἁτυφια: atyphia), developing self-sufficiency (αὐτάρκεια: autarky), apatheia, arete, love of humanity, parrhesia, and indifference to the vicissitudes of life (adiaphora).
For Pyrrhonism, suffering comes from (i.e. regarding non-evident matters), most particularly beliefs that certain things are either good or bad by nature. Suffering can be removed by developing epoche (suspension of judgment) regarding beliefs, which leads to ataraxia (mental tranquility).
Epicurus (contrary to common misperceptions of his doctrine) advocated that we should first seek to avoid suffering (aponia) and that the greatest pleasure lies in ataraxia, free from the worrisome pursuit or the unwelcome consequences of ephemeral pleasures. Epicureanism's version of Hedonism, as an ethical theory, claims that good and bad consist ultimately in pleasure and pain.
For Stoicism, the greatest good lies in reason and virtue, but the soul best reaches it through a kind of indifference (apathy) to pleasure and pain: as a consequence, this doctrine has become identified with stern self-control in regard to suffering.
Another doctrine related to the relief of suffering is humanitarianism (see also humanitarian principles, humanitarian aid, and humane society). "Where humanitarian efforts seek a positive addition to the happiness of sentient beings, it is to make the unhappy happy rather than the happy happier. ... Humanitarianism is an ingredient in many social attitudes; in the modern world it has so penetrated into diverse movements ... that it can hardly be said to exist in itself."Crane Brinton, article Humanitarianism, Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, 1937
Pessimism hold this world to be mainly bad, or even the worst possible, plagued with, among other things, unbearable and unstoppable suffering. Some identify suffering as the nature of the world and conclude that it would be better if life did not exist at all. Arthur Schopenhauer recommends us to take refuge in things like art, philosophy, loss of the will to live, and tolerance toward 'fellow-sufferers'.
Friedrich Nietzsche, first influenced by Schopenhauer, developed afterward quite another attitude, arguing that the suffering of life is productive, exalting the will to power, despising weak compassion or pity, and recommending us to embrace willfully the 'eternal return' of the greatest sufferings.
Some philosophers have questioned whether suffering has a genuine positive counterpart. A phenomenological argument presented by Magnus Vinding claims that while positive experiences such as joy or excitement are real, they do not serve as opposites to suffering in either phenomenology or axiology terms.
Philosophy of pain is a philosophical speciality that focuses on physical pain and is, through that, relevant to suffering in general.
The 'Four Noble Truths' of Buddhism are about dukkha, a term often translated as suffering. They state the nature of suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation, the Noble Eightfold Path. Buddhism considers liberation from dukkha and the practice of compassion (karuna) as basic for leading a holy life and attaining nirvana.
Hinduism holds that suffering follows naturally from personal negative behaviors in one's current life or in a past life (see karma in Hinduism).Kane, P.V. History of the Dharmaśāstras Vol. 4 p. 38 One must accept suffering as a just consequence and as an opportunity for spiritual progress. Thus the soul or true self, which is eternally free of any suffering, may come to manifest itself in the person, who then achieves liberation (moksha). Abstinence from causing pain or harm to other beings, called ahimsa, is a central tenet of Hinduism, and even more so of another Indian religion, Jainism (see ahimsa in Jainism).
In Judaism, suffering is often seen as a punishment for sins and a test of a person's faith, like the Book of Job illustrates.
For Christianity, redemptive suffering is the belief that human suffering, when accepted and offered up in union with the "passion" (flogging and crucifixion) of Jesus, can remit the just punishment for sins, and allow oneself to grow in the love of The Trinity, other people, and oneself.[4] .
In Islam, the faithful must endure suffering with hope and faith, not resist or ask why, accept it as Allah's will and submit to it as a test of faith. Allah never asks more than can be endured. One must also work to alleviate the suffering of others, as well as one's own. Suffering is also seen as a blessing. Through that gift, the sufferer remembers Allah and connects with him. Suffering expunges the sins of human beings and cleanses their soul for the immense reward of the afterlife, and the avoidance of hell.Suffering an Islamic point of view:
According to the Bahá'í Faith, all suffering is a brief and temporary manifestation of physical life, whose source is the material aspects of physical existence, and often attachment to them, whereas only joy exists in the spiritual worlds.In the words of `Abdu'l-Bahá: "All these examples are to show you that the trials which beset our every step, all our sorrow, pain, shame and grief, are born in the world of matter; whereas the spiritual Kingdom never causes sadness. A man living with his thoughts in this Kingdom knows perpetual joy." Paris Talks, p. 110.
This Bruegel painting is among those that inspired W. H. Auden's poem Musée des Beaux Arts:
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
(...)
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; (...)W.H. Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts (1938) in Collected Poems p. 179 (E. Mendelson ed. 1976)
The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential is a work by the Union of International Associations. Its main databases are about world problems (56,564 profiles), global strategies and solutions (32,547 profiles), human values (3,257 profiles), and human development (4,817 profiles). It states that "the most fundamental entry common to the core parts is that of pain (or suffering)" and "common to the core parts is the learning dimension of new understanding or insight in response to suffering".
Ralph Siu, an American author, urged in 1988 the "creation of a new and vigorous academic discipline, called panetics, to be devoted to the study of the infliction of suffering",Ralph G.H. Siu, Panetics − The Study of the Infliction of Suffering, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 28 No. 3, Summer 1988. See also Ralph G. H. Siu, Panetics Trilogy, Washington: The International Society for Panetics, 1994, . The International Society for Panetics was founded in 1991 to study and develop ways to reduce the infliction of human suffering by individuals acting through professions, corporations, governments, and other social groups.
In economics, the following notions relate not only to the matters suggested by their positive appellations, but to the matter of suffering as well: Well-being or Quality of life, Welfare economics, Happiness economics, Gross National Happiness, genuine progress indicator.
In law, "Pain and suffering" is a legal term that refers to the mental distress or physical pain endured by a plaintiff as a result of injury for which the plaintiff seeks redress. Assessments of pain and suffering are required to be made for attributing legal awards. In the Western world these are typically made by juries in a discretionary fashion and are regarded as subjective, variable, and difficult to predict, for instance in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand. See also, in US law, Negligent infliction of emotional distress and Intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In management and organization studies, drawing on the work of Eric Cassell, suffering has been defined as the distress a person experiences when they perceive a threat to any aspect of their continued existence, whether physical, psychological, or social. Other researchers have noted that suffering results from an inability to control actions that usually define one's view of one's self and that the characteristics of suffering include the loss of autonomy, or the loss of valued relationships or sense of self. Suffering is therefore determined not by the threat itself but, rather, by its meaning to the individual and the threat to their personhood.
Many brain structures and physiological processes are involved in suffering (particularly the anterior insula and cingulate cortex, both implicated in nociceptive and empathic pain). Various hypotheses try to account for the experience of suffering. One of these, the pain overlap theory takes note, thanks to neuroimaging studies, that the cingulate cortex fires up when the brain feels suffering from experimentally induced social distress, as well as physical pain. The theory proposes therefore that physical pain and social pain (i.e. two radically differing kinds of suffering) share a common phenomenological and neurological basis.
According to David Pearce's online manifesto "The Hedonistic Imperative", suffering is the avoidable result of Darwinian evolution. Pearce promotes replacing the biology of suffering with a robot-like response to noxious stimuliSee Vanity Fair interview with Pearce or with information-sensitive gradients of bliss,See Life in the Far North – An information-theoretic perspective on Heaven through genetic engineering and other technical scientific advances.
Different theories of psychology view suffering differently. Sigmund Freud viewed suffering as something humans are hardwired to avoid, while they are always in the pursuit of pleasure, (1988). 9780946439492, Routledge. ISBN 9780946439492 also known as the hedonic theory of motivation or the pleasure principle. This dogma also ties in with certain concepts of Behaviorism, most notably Operant Conditioning theory. In operant conditioning, a negative stimulus is removed thereby increasing a desired behavior, alternatively an aversive stimulus can be introduced as a punishing factor. In both methods, unfavorable circumstances are used in order to motivate an individual or an animal towards a certain goal. However, other theories of psychology present contradicting ideas such as the idea that humans sometimes seek out suffering. Many existentialists believe suffering is necessary in order to find meaning in our lives. Existential Positive Psychology is a theory dedicated to exploring the relationship between suffering and happiness and the belief that true authentic happiness can only come from experiencing pain and hardships.
Hedonistic psychology,Kahneman, D., E. Diener and N. Schwartz (eds.) Well-being: The Foundations of Hedonistic Psychology, Russell Sage Foundation, 1999 affective science, and affective neuroscience are some of the emerging scientific fields that could in the coming years focus their attention on the phenomenon of suffering.
Health care approaches to suffering, however, remain problematic. Physician and author Eric Cassell, widely cited on the subject of attending to the suffering person as a primary goal of medicine, has defined suffering as "the state of severe distress associated with events that threaten the intactness of the person".Eric J Cassell, The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine, 2004. Cassell writes: "The obligation of physicians to relieve human suffering stretches back to antiquity. Despite this fact, little attention is explicitly given to the problem of suffering in medical education, research or practice." Mirroring the traditional body and mind dichotomy that underlies its teaching and practice, medicine strongly distinguishes pain from suffering, and most attention goes to the treatment of pain. Nevertheless, physical pain itself still lacks adequate attention from the medical community, according to numerous reports.See for instance the National Pain Care Policy Act of 2007 Besides, some medical fields like palliative care, pain management, oncology, or psychiatry, do somewhat address suffering 'as such'. In palliative care, for instance, pioneer Cicely Saunders created the concept of 'total pain' ('total suffering' say now the textbooks),See Existential pain – an entity, a provocation, or a challenge? in Journal of Pain Symptom and Management, Volume 27, Issue 3, pp. 241–250 (March 2004) which encompasses the whole set of physical and mental distress, discomfort, symptoms, problems, or needs that a patient may experience hurtfully.
The nongovernmental research organization Center on Long-Term Risk, formerly known as the Foundational Research Institute, focuses on reducing risks of astronomical suffering (s-risks) from emerging technologies. Another organization also focused on research, the Center on Reducing Suffering, has a similar focus, with a stress on clarifying what priorities there should be at a practical level to attain the goal of reducing intense suffering in the future.Center on Reducing Suffering (2019) "About us".
People make use of suffering for specific social or personal purposes in many areas of human life, as can be seen in the following instances:
|
|
