Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

182397

Neural plasticity and the malleability of pain

Grant Gillett

pp. 37-53

Abstract

Pain is a product of our neural networks painstakingly formed through phylogeny and ontogeny. Neural pathways form within neural nets as a result of long term potentiation and other dynamic mechanisms that subserve learning and memory and are modified so therefore form a key part of what Foucault calls "a volume in perpetual disintegration," constantly reinforcing connections that capture points of experiential association and gradually dismantling networks that are no longer relevant to the organism's affordances (points of biological significance in a stimulus environment). Human pain, seen as an experience with a pivotal role in human interactions, and with a number of psychologically inflected varieties and meanings, is therefore not only a neural phenomenon, but also a moral one. It is moral in that it reflects influences from our engagement in a context of human adaptation that is discursive and interpersonal, one that is heavily inscribed by cultural stereotypes and practices that shape who we are and how we understand and give an account of ourselves. To be, in that sense, is to be humanly engaged in the world, including the world of the clinic and its mores whenever and wherever we enter into it.

Publication details

Published in:

van Rysewyk Simon (2016) Meanings of pain. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 37-53

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-49022-9_3

Full citation:

Gillett Grant (2016) „Neural plasticity and the malleability of pain“, In: S. Van Rysewyk (ed.), Meanings of pain, Dordrecht, Springer, 37–53.