Pain Management, Essay Example

Pain is a very interesting concept in our culture.  Typically, boys and men are forbidden to show any amount of pain unless it is extremely severe.  Children play a game growing up called “Be a Man, Don’t Rub It” where one child will punch the other in the arm and in order to show how “manly” that child truly is, he must not rub his arm – no matter how much it hurts.  This is the culture in which we live.  When I was a child, my parents always used to tell me not to cry and that the pain would go away.  My mom would rub the pain and kiss it away, while my dad never wanted me to bother him with such childish behaviors.  This is typical for how our culture views pain for males.  Women, on the other hand, are allowed to show emotional and physical pain at all cost.  Women can weep at the smallest scratch and it is completely acceptable.  Therefore, both men and women are allowed to experience pain as a natural consequence of our senses, but men must “suck it up” at all costs, while women can leave their emotions openly on their sleeves.

Rod Moore (1990) suggests in his research that pain is recognized by the brain; therefore, it must be a cognitive process that is recognized by mental thought.  He continues to elaborate by stating in his final conclusions that social factors that influence our ideas of pain and pain tolerance help influence our mental coping mechanisms for pain (p. 171, 180).  While this may help to explain the biological factors associated with pain and how we cope with it, we should also look to another cultural scenario as well.  Writers have always described heroes that are virtually invulnerable, such as Superman.  These heroes rarely experience pain, and this forces our culture to consider pain as a very human trait or characteristic.  To be painless, is to be inhuman or superhuman.  With this idea in mind, it helps us understand why it is important for men and children to show no pain; we are always striving to eliminate our weaknesses and become perfect in every sense possible.

References

Moore, R. (1990). Ethnographic assessment of pain coping perceptions. Psychosomatic Medicine, 52, 171-181.

Nayak, S., Shiflett, S.C., Eshun, S., & Levine, F.M. (2000). Culture and gender effects in pain beliefs and the prediction of pain tolerance. Cross-Cultural Research, 34(2), 135-151.

Todd, K.H. (1996). Pain assessment and ethnicity. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 27(4), 421-423.