Anthropology and pain.

Many thinkers indicate pain as a mystery. Pain is a mystery which hides something that is difficult to understand, something that cannot be analyzed in a definitive way. The attention of physicians and nurses is devoted to the control of the physical pain which is evident through signs and symptoms. Interdisciplinary studies are dedicated in explaining the origin and evolution of pain, whereas neuro-pharmacological studies are performed to interrupt, at different levels, the circuits which are involved in the nociceptive experience. Pain, though, cannot be explained only in anatomical terms or through the description of the sensitive network. The experience of pain is not only due to an activation of nervous system, but it is also related to a psychological status which is conditioned by emotions and personal lived experience. The pain reaction is an individual experience, not strictly related to the entity of the damaged tissue, being present even in absence of lesion. Pain is an experience involving an inter-dependency of mind and body, since it is not possible to make a clear distinction between organic and psychic component. This concept indicates that pain is a component of a person which is suffering in its complex and individuality. This holistic vision of human being means that the person has to be at the center of the medical approach.