There are many (language/medical) challenges for pain’s proper definition/diagnosis, difficulties in understanding its underlying biomedical causes and psychological triggers, and there are technological feats to overcome for its adequate treatment. When does ‘healthy’ acute pain develop into debilitating chronic pain?  These types of questions are on the forefront of new and exciting research into chronic pain. This research forces us to challenge the Cartesian separation of ‘body and mind’. 

Some pain is considered more ‘worthy’ than other pain. For example, diagnoses in women are more often missed than in men and people of a non-western background have longer waiting times in hospitals and also receive less pain medication. In the US the opioid crisis has taken over the country by a storm, as large pharmaceutical companies were able to push their painkillers to vulnerable and marginalised communities. These types of circumstances make chronic pain also an inherently moral and political issue.  

During this meeting, members of an interdisciplinary consortium of the Centre for Unusual Collaborations will give their latest insights, and author Sanne Bloemink will introduce her latest book on the topic.

This is an invitational meeting.