Abstract
The words “pain” and “suffering” are so often used together in clinical practice they often seem to merge into a single concept, “pain and suffering.” Writing in the early 1980s, Eric Cassell bemoaned the fact that the medical literature contained few studies that specifically addressed suffering, while many hundreds of reports focused on all aspects of physical and psychological pain (Cassell 1982). Since then, the study of human suffering has advanced considerably, in large part due to the development of palliative medicine as a clinical specialty Wall (1999). Nowadays, clinicians have learned to focus their attention on existential factors not directly dependent on the experience of physical or psychological pain (Kellehear 2009).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Akhmatova, A. (2004). The word that causes death’s defeat. Poems of memory (trans: Anderson, N. K.). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Beck, A. L., Arnold, R. M., & Quill, T. E. (2003). Hope for the best, and prepare for the worst. Annals of Internal Medicine, 138(3), 439–443.
Becker, H. S., Geer, B., Hughes, E., & Strauss, A. (1961). Boys in white: Student culture in medical school. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bennett, M. J. (2001). The empathic healer: An endangered species? New York: Academic.
Benzein, E., & Saveman, B. I. (1998). Nurses’ perception of hope in patients with cancer: A palliative care perspective. Canver Nursing, 21(1), 10–16.
Benzein, E., Norberg, A., & Saveman, B. (2001). The meaning of the lived experience of hope in patients with cancer in palliative home care. Palliative Medicine, 15, 117–126.
Berglund, M., Westin, L., Svanstro, R., & Sundler, A. J. (2012). Suffering caused by care: Patients’ experiences from hospital settings. International Journal of Qualitative Studies Health and Well-being, 7, 18688. https://doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v7i0.18688.
Blum, L. (1980). Compassion. In A. O. Rorty (Ed.), Explaining emotions (pp. 507–517). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Blumgart, H. L. (1964). Caring for the patient. The New England Journal of Medicine, 270, 449–456.
Bolton, G. (1999). Stories at work: Reflective writing for practitioners. The Lancet, 354, 243–245.
Broadhurst, K., & Harrington, A. (2016). A mixed method thematic review: The importance of hope to the dying patient. Journal of Advanced Nursing., 72(1), 18–32.
Cassell, E. J. (1982). The nature of suffering and the goals of medicine. New England Journal of Medicine, 306(11), 639–645.
Cassell, E. J. (1995). Pain and suffering. In W. T. Reich (Ed.), Encyclopedia of bioethics (2nd ed., pp. 1897–1904). New York: Simon & Schuster.
Cassell, E. J. (2004). The nature of suffering and the goals of medicine. New York: Oxford University Press.
Charon, R. (2001a). Narrative medicine. A model for empathy, reflection, profession, and trust. Journal of the American Medical Association, 286, 1897–1902.
Charon, R. (2001b). Narrative medicine: Form, function, and ethics. Annals of Internal Medicine, 134, 83–87.
Charon, R. (2004). Narrative and medicine. The New England Journal of Medicine, 350(9), 862–864.
Cherny, N. I. (2004). The challenge of palliative medicine: The problem of suffering. In D. Doyle, G. Hanks, N. Cherny, & K. Calman (Eds.), Oxford textbook of palliative medicine (pp. 7–14). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chochinov, H. M. (2007). Dignity and the essence of medicine the A, B, C, and D of dignity conserving care. British Medical Journal, 335, 184–187.
Chochinov, H. M., Hack, T., Hassard, T., Kristjanson, L. J., McClement, S., & Harlos, M. (2002a). Dignity in the terminally ill: A cross-sectional, cohort study. The Lancet, 360, 2026–2030.
Chochinov, H. M., Hack, T., McClement, S., Kristjanson, L. J., & Harlos, M. (2002b). Dignity in the terminally ill: A developing empirical model. Social Science & Medicine, 54, 433–443.
Chochinov, H. M., Hack, T., Hassard, T., Kristjanson, L. J., McClement, S., & Harlos, M. (2005). Dignity therapy: A novel psychotherapeutic intervention for patients near the end-of-life. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 23, 5520–5524.
Chochinov, H. M., Johnston, W., McClement, S. E., Hack, T. F., Dufault, B., Enns, M., Thompson, G., Harlos, M., Damant, R. W., Ramsey, S. D., Davison, S., Zacharias, J., Milke, D., Strang, D., Campbell-Enns, H. J., & Kredentser, M. S. (2016). Dignity and distress towards the end of life across four non-cancer populations. PLoS One, 11(1), e0147607. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0147607.
Coles, R. (1989). The call of stories: Teaching and the moral imagination (p. 179). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Colliver, J. A., Conlee, M. J., Verhulst, S. J., & Dorsey, J. K. (2010). Reports of the decline of empathy during medical education are greatly exaggerated: A reexamination of the research. Academic Medicine, 85, 588–593.
Cook, D., & Rocker, G. (2014). Dying with dignity in the intensive care unit. The New England Journal of Medicine, 370, 2506–2514.
Coulehan, J. (2005). Today’s professionalism: Engaging the mind, but not the heart. Academic Medicine, 80, 892–898.
Coulehan, J. (2012). To suffer with: The poetry of compassion. In J. Malpais & N. Lickiss (Eds.), Perspectives on human suffering (pp. 227–245). Dordrecht: Springer.
Coulehan, J., & Block, M. R. (2006). The medical interview: Mastering skills for clinical practice (5th ed., pp. 29–44). Philadelphia: Davis company.
Coulehan, J., & Clary, P. (2005). Healing the healer: Poetry in palliative care. Journal of Palliative Care, 8(2), 382–389.
Coulehan, J., & Williams, P. C. (2003). Conflicting professional values in medical education. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 12, 7–20.
Coulehan, J., Platt, F. W., Frankl, R., Salazar, W., Lown, B., & Fox, L. (2001). Let me see if I have this right: Words that build empathy. Annals of Internal Medicine, 135, 221–227.
DasGupta, S., & Charon, R. (2004). Personal illness narratives: Using reflective writing to teach empathy. Academic Medicine, 79(4), 351–356.
Daudet, A. (2002). In J. Barnes (Ed.), In the land of pain. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Del Canale, S., Louis, D. Z., Maio, V., Wang, X., Rossi, G., Hojat, M., & Gonnella, J. S. (2012). The relationship between physician empathy and disease complications: An empirical study of primary care physicians and their diabetic patients in Parma, Italy. Academic Medicine, 87, 1243–1249.
Derksen, F., Bensing, J., & Lagro-Janssen, A. (2013). Effectiveness of empathy in general practice: A systematic review. British Journal of General Practice, 63(606), 76–84.
Dickinson, E. (1960). In T. H. Johnson (Ed.), The complete poems of Emily Dickinson (p. 116). Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Donato, S. C. T., Matuoka, J. Y., Yamashita, C. C., & Salvetti, M. G. (2016). Effects of dignity therapy on terminally ill patients: A systematic review. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da U.S.P., 50(6), 1011–1021.
DuFault, K., & Martoocchio, B. (1985). Hope: Its spheres and dimensions. Nursing Clinics of North America, 20, 379–391.
Frank, A. (2001). Can we research suffering? Qualitative Health Research, 11, 353–362.
Frankel, R. M., Quill, T. E., & McDaniel, S. H. (Eds.). (2003). The biopsychosocial approach: Past, present, future. Rochester: University of Rochester Press.
Frankl, V. (2006). Man’s search for meaning. Boston: Beacon Press.
Galanti, G. A. (1997). Caring for patients from different cultures. Case studies from American hospitals. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
George, R. (2009). Suffering and healing—Our core business. Palliative Medicine, 23, 385–387.
Groopman, J. (2004). The anatomy of hope. How people prevail in the face of illness. New York: Random House.
Gunderman, R. B. (2002). Is suffering the enemy? Hastings Center Report, 32(2), 40–44.
Halpern, J. (1992). Empathy: Using resonance emotions in the service of curiosity. In H. Spiro et al. (Eds.), Empathy and the practice of medicine (pp. 160–173). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Halpern, J. (2003). What is clinical empathy? Journal of General Internal Medicine, 18, 670–674.
Halpern, J. (2007). Empathy and patient-physician conflicts. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 22, 696–700.
Hauerwas, S. (1990). God, medicine, and suffering (p. 69). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans.
Helwick, C. (2010, March 24). Fostering hope in hopeless situations. MD Consult News.
Herth, K. (1990). Fostering hope in terminally ill people. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 15, 1250–1259.
Herth, K. (1993). Hope in older adults in community and institutional settings. Issues Mental Health Nursing, 14, 139–156.
Herth, K. A., & Cutcliffe, J. R. (2002). The concept of hope in nursing 3: Hope and palliative care nursing. British Journal of Nursing, 11, 977–983.
Hertzler, A. E. (1940). The horse and buggy doctor. Garden City: Blue Ribbon Books, 322 pages.
Hojat, M. (2009). Empathy in patient care (pp. 10–15). New York: Springer.
Hojat, M., Gonnella, J. S., Nasca, T. J., Mangione, S., Vergare, M., & Magee, M. (2002). Physician empathy: Definition, components, measurement, and relationship to gender and specialty. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 1563–1569.
Hojat, M., Vergare, M. J., Maxwell, K., Brainard, G., Herrine, S. K., Isenberg, G. A., Veloske, J., & Gonnella, J. S. (2009). The devil is in the third year: A longitudinal study of erosion of empathy in medical school. Academic Medicine, 84, 1182–1191.
Hojat, M., Louis, D. Z., Markham, F. W., et al. (2011). Physician empathy and clinical outcomes for diabetic patients. Academic Medicine, 86, 359–364.
Holstein, M. (1997). Reflections on death and dying. Academic Medicine, 72, 848–855.
Johnston, B., Pringle, J., Gaffney, M., Narayanasamy, M., McGuire, M., & Buchanan, D. (2015). The dignified approach to care: A pilot study using the patient dignity question as an intervention to enhance dignity and person-centered care for people with palliative care needs in the acute hospital setting. BMC Palliative Care, 14, 9.
Kearney, M. (1996). Mortally wounded. Stories of soul pain, death and healing (p. 60). Dublin: Marino Books.
Kearney, M. (2000). A place of healing: Working with suffering in living and dying. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kearney, M. K., Weininger, R. B., Vachon, M. L. S., Harrison, R. I., & Mount, B. M. (2009). Self-care of physicians caring for patients at the end of life. “Being connected… A key to my survival”. JAMA, 301, 1155–1164.
Kellehear, A. (2009). On dying and human suffering. Palliative Medicine, 23, 388–397.
Kodish, E., & Post, S. G. (1995). Oncology and hope. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 13(7), 1817–1822.
Lawrence, D. H. (1947). Selected poems (pp. 138–140). Introduction by Kenneth Rexroth. New York: New Directions.
Leget, C., & Olthuis, G. (2007). Compassion as a basis for ethics in medical education. Journal of Medical Ethics, 33, 617–620.
Lief, H. I., & Fox, R. (1963). Training for “detached concern” in medical students. In H. I. Lief & N. R. Lief (Eds.), The psychological basis for medical practice. New York: Harper & Row.
Marcel, G. (1960). Fresh hope in the world. London: Longmans.
McCormick, T. R., & Conley, B. J. (1995). Patient perspectives on dying and on the care of dying patients. The Western Journal of Medicine, 163, 236–243.
Meier, D. E., Back, A. L., & Morrison, R. S. (2001). The inner life of physicians and care of the seriously ill. JAMA, 286, 3007–3014.
Mendiola, M. M. (1996). Overworked, but uncritically tested: Human dignity and the aid-in-dying debate. In E. E. Shelp (Ed.), Secular bioethics in theological perspective (pp. 129–143). New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Miller, J. (1985). Hope. American Journal of Nursing, 85, 23–25.
Morris, D. B. (2001). Narrative, ethics, and thinking with stories. Narrative, 9, 55–77.
Nouwen, H. J. M., McNeill, D. P., & Morrison, D. A. (1982). Compassion. New York: Image Books.
Novack, D. H., Plumer, R., Smith, R. L., et al. (1979). Changes in physician attitudes toward telling the cancer patient. JAMA, 241, 897–900.
Novack, D. H., Suchman, A. L., Clark, W., Epstein, R. M., Najberg, E., & Kaplan, M. D. (1997). Calibrating the physician. Personal awareness and effective patient care. JAMA, 278, 502–509.
Ober, K. P. (2003). Mark Twain and medicine. “Any mummery will cure”. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.
Oken, D. (1961). What to tell cancer patients: A study of medical attitudes. JAMA, 175, 1120–1128.
Olsman, E., Leget, C., Duggleby, W., & Willems, D. (2015). A singing choir: Understanding the dynamics of hope, hopelessness, and despair in palliative care patients. A longitudinal qualitative study. Palliative and Supportive Care, 13, 1643–1650.
Osler, W. (2001). Aequanimitas. In S. Hinohara & H. Niki (Eds.), Osler’s “a way of life” and other addresses with commentary and annotations (pp. 21–29). Durham: Duke University Press.
Ozick, C. (1989). Metaphor and memory. In Metaphor and memory: Essays (pp. 265–283). New York: Knopf.
Pellegrino, E. D., & Thomasma, D. C. (1996). The Christian virtues in medical practice. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Post-White, J., Ceronsky, C., & Kreitzer, M. (1996). Hope, spirituality, sense of coherence, and quality of life in patients with cancer. Oncology Nursing Forum, 23, 1571–1579.
Reich, W. T. (1989). Speaking of suffering. A moral account of compassion. Soundings, 72(1), 83–108.
Rodríguez-Prat, A., Monforte-Royo, C., Porta-Sales, J., Escribano, X., & Balaguer, A. (2016). Patient perspectives of dignity, autonomy and control at the end of life: Systematic review and meta-ethnography. PLoS One, 11(3), e0151435. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.015143.
Saunders, C. (1984). The philosophy of terminal care. In C. Saunders (Ed.), The management of terminal malignant disease. London: Edward Arnold.
Shakespeare, W. (1952). Measure for measure act III, scene 1. In The complete works (p. 1116). New York: Harcourt Brace.
Snyder, C. R., Rand, K. L., King, E. A., Feldman, D. B., & Woodward, J. T. (2002). “False” hope. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58, 1003–1022.
Solano, J. P. C., Gomes da Silva, A., Soares, I. A., Ashmani, H. A., & Veira, J. E. (2016). Resilience and hope during advanced disease: A pilot study with metastatic colorectal cancer patients. BMC Palliative Care, 15, 70.
Spiro, H. (1992). What is empathy and can it be taught? In H. Spiro et al. (Eds.), Empathy and the practice of medicine. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Sulmasy, D. P. (1997). The Healer’s calling. Spirituality for physicians and other health care professionals. New York: Paulist Press.
Vehling, S., Kamphausen, A., Oechsle, K., Hroch, S., Bokemeyer, C., & Mehnert, A. (2015). The preference to discuss expected survival is associated with loss of meaning and purpose in terminally ill Cancer patients. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 18, 970–976.
Von Roenn, J. H., & von Gunten, C. F. (2003). Setting goals to maintain hope. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 21(3), 570–574.
Wall, P. (1999). Pain: The science of suffering. London: Weidenfield and Nicholson.
Warr, T. (1999). The physician’s role in maintaining hope and spirituality. Bioethics Forum, 15(1), 31–37.
Wilkinson, I. (2005). Suffering: A sociological introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Williams, W. C. (1951). The autobiography of William Carlos Williams (p. 35). New York: New Directions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Coulehan, J. (2018). Suffering, Hope, and Healing. In: Moore, R. (eds) Handbook of Pain and Palliative Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95369-4_35
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95369-4_35
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-95368-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-95369-4
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)