Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Social Side of Pain: What Does it Mean to Feel Another’s Pain?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Meanings of Pain

Abstract

This chapter gives an overview of the current state of the neuroscientific basis of empathy and the experience of vicarious pain; that is, an explicit sensory experience of pain when observing another in pain. We summarise the central and autonomic mechanisms that are associated with vicarious pain experience from studies using electrophysiology, electroencephalography, transcranial magnetic stimulation and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. While this research has given us fantastic insight into the neural mechanisms giving rise to vicarious pain experience, the mechanisms are not well contextualised in relation to the daily lived experience. We discuss the importance of social roles and context in vicarious experiences to provide insight into the aspects of life in which vicarious sensations may arise. For instance, when a parent vicariously reacts to a painful injury in their own child, this may motivate protection and nurturing. Healthcare providers who embody the pain or emotions of their client may report that this enhances intuitive and/or compassionate care. However, distressing vicarious reactivity towards the suffering of others may also ultimately disrupt the capacity to deliver compassionate care and/or lead to burnout. While several qualitative studies have characterised the experience of secondary trauma, and to a lesser degree emotion contagion in clinicians, there has been a lack of qualitative and mixed methods research in this field. In an attempt to emphasise the significance of the social context in empathic and vicarious responses, we give an overview of lived experience of vicarious pain from the perspective of a clinician who describes her experiences both with family members and patients in pain. In concluding, we draw parallels between the phenomenological lived account of vicarious pain experience and neurophysiological mechanisms, and discuss the implications of vicarious reactivity for interpersonal relationships, especially within a clinical context. Ultimately for our understanding of both the mechanisms and consequences of vicarious pains sensations future research should take advantage of mixed methods designs to triangulate the neuroscientific mechanisms with the lived experience.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Appelhans BM, Luecken LJ (2006) Heart rate variability as an index of regulated emotional responding. Rev Gen Psychol 10(3):229–240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Avenanti A, Sirigu A, Aglioti SM (2010) Racial bias reduces empathic sensorimotor resonance with other-race pain. Curr Biol 20(11):1018–1022

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aydede M, Price D (2006) The experimental use of introspection in the scientific study of pain and its integration with third-person methodologies: the experiential-phenomenological approach. In: Aydede M (ed) Pain: new essays on its nature and the methodology of its study. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 243–273

    Google Scholar 

  • Azevedo RT, Macaluso E, Avenanti A, Santangelo V, Cazzato V, Aglioti SM (2012) Their pain is not our pain: Brain and autonomic correlates of empathic resonance with the pain of same and different race individuals. Hum Brain Mapp 34(12):3168–3181

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Banissy MJ, Cohen Kadosh R, Maus GW, Walsh V, Ward J (2009) Prevalence, characteristics and a neurocognitive model of mirror-touch synaesthesia. Exp Brain Res 198(2–3):261–272

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bastian B, Jetten J, Ferris LJ (2014) Pain as social glue: shared pain increases cooperation. Psychol Sci 25(11):2079–2085

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bernhardt BC, Singer T (2012) The neural basis of empathy. Annu Rev Neurosci 35:1–23

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blakemore S-J, Bristow D, Bird G, Frith C, Ward J (2005) Somatosensory activations during the observation of touch and a case of vision-touch synaesthesia. Brain 128(7):1571–1583

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blatt B, LeLacheur SF, Galinsky AD, Simmens SJ, Greenberg L (2010) Does perspective-taking increase patient satisfaction in medical encounters? Acad Med 85(9):1445–1452

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bourke J (2014) The story of pain: from prayer to painkillers. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bufalari I, Aprile T, Avenanti A, Di Russo F, Aglioti SM (2007) Empathy for pain and touch in the human somatosensory cortex. Cereb Cortex 17:2553–2561

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cheng Y, Lin CP, Liu HL, Hsu YY, Lim KE, Hung D, Decety J (2007) Expertise modulates the perception of pain in others. Curr Biol 17(19):1708–1713

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng Y, Yang C, Lin C, Lee P, Decety J (2008) The perception of pain in others suppresses somatosensory oscillations: a magnetoencephalography study. Neuroimage 40:1833–1840

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cheon BK, Im DM, Harada T, Kim JS, Mathur VA, Scimeca JM, Parrish TB, Park H, Chiao JY (2013) Cultural modulation of the neural correlates of emotional pain perception: the role of other-focusedness. Neuropsychologia 51(7):1177–1186

    Google Scholar 

  • Cisler JM, Olatunji BO, Feldner MT, Forsyth JP (2010) Emotion regulation and the anxiety disorders: an integrative review. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 32(1):68–82

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Coulehan JL, Platt FW, Egener B, Frankel R, Lin CT, Lown B, Salazar WH (2001) “Let me see if I have this right…”: words that help build empathy. Ann Intern Med 135(3):221–227

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Craig KD (1968) Physiological arousal as a function of imagined vicarious and direct stress experiences. J Abnorm Psychol 73(6):513–520

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cui F, Abdelgabar AR, Keysers C, Gazzola V (2015) Responsibility modulates pain-matrix activation elicited by the expressions of others in pain. Neuroimage 114:371–378

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidov M, Zahn-Waxler C, Roth-Hanania R, Knafo A (2013) Concern for others in the first year of life: theory, evidence, and avenues for research. Child Dev Perspect 7(2):126–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daykin AR, Richardson D (2004) Physiotherapists’ pain beliefs and their influence on the management of patients with chronic low back pain. Spine 29(7):783–795

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • de Waal F (2010) The age of empathy: nature’s lessons for a kinder society. Broadway Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Decety J (2010) The neurodevelopment of empathy in humans. Dev Neurosci 32(4):257–267

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Decety J, Chaminade T (2003) Neural correlates of feeling sympathy. Neuropsychologia 41(2):127–138

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Decety J, Jackson PL (2006) A social-neuroscience perspective on empathy. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 15(2):54–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Decety J, Meyer M (2008) From emotion resonance to empathic understanding: a social developmental neuroscience account. Dev Psychopathol 20(4):1053–1080

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Decety J, Echols S, Correll J (2009) The blame game: the effect of responsibility and social stigma on empathy for pain. J Cogn Neurosci 22(5):985–997

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Decety J, Smith K, Norman G, Halpern J (2014) A social neuroscience perspective on clinical empathy. World Psychiatry 13:233–237

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Derbyshire SWG, Osborn J, Brown S (2013) Feeling the pain of others is associated with self-other confusion and prior pain experience. Front Hum Neurosci 7:Article 470

    Google Scholar 

  • Duprat R, Desmyter S, Rudi DR, van Heeringen K, Van den Abbeele D, Tandt H, Bakic J, Pourtois G, Dedoncker J, Vervaet M, Van Autreve S, Lemmens GMD, Baeken C (2016) Accelerated intermittent theta burst stimulation treatment in medication-resistant major depression: a fast road to remission? J Affect Disord 200:6–14

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eley D, Eley R, Bertello M, Rogers-Clark C (2012) Why did I become a nurse? Personality traits and reasons for entering nursing. J Adv Nurs 68(7):1546–1555

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fan Y, Duncan NW, de Greck M, Northoff G (2011) Is there a core neural network in empathy? An fMRI based quantitative meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 35(3):903–911

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgibbon BM, Enticott PG, Bradshaw JL, Giummarra MJ, Chou M, Georgiou-Karistianis N, Fitzgerald PB (2012a) Enhanced corticospinal response to observed pain in pain synesthetes. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 12(2):406–418

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgibbon BM, Enticott PG, Giummarra MJ, Thomson RH, Georgiou-Karistianis N, Bradshaw JL (2012b) Atypical electrophysiological activity during pain observation in amputees who experience synaesthetic pain. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 7(3):357–368

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgibbon BM, Enticott PG, Rich AN, Giummarra MJ, Georgiou-Karistianis N, Bradshaw JL (2012c) Mirror-sensory synaesthesia: exploring ‘shared’ sensory experiences as synaesthesia. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 36(1):645–657

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Forsythe LP, Romano JM, Jensen MP, Thorn BE (2012) Attachment style is associated with perceived spouse responses and pain-related outcomes. Rehabil Psychol 57:290–300

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Giummarra MJ, Fitzgibbon BM (2016) Vicarious experiences are associated with greater compassionate concern, but only via an indirect association with heightened anxious arousal traits (review)

    Google Scholar 

  • Giummarra MJ, Fitzgibbon BM, Georgiou-Karistianis N, Beukelman M, Verdejo-Garcia A, Blumberg Z, Chou M, Gibson SJ (2015a) Affective, sensory and empathic sharing of others’ pain: the Empathy for pain scale. Eur J Pain 19: 807–816 doi: 10.1002/ejp.607

    Google Scholar 

  • Giummarra MJ, Fitzgibbon BM, Tsao JW, Gibson S, Rich AN, Georgiou-Karistianis N, Chou M, Bradshaw JL, Alphonso AL, Tung ML, Drastal CA, Hanling S, Pasquina PF, Enticott PG (2015b) Symptoms of PTSD associated with painful and nonpainful vicarious reactivity following amputation. J Trauma Stress 28:1–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giummarra MJ, Poudel G, Pei-Tse AN, Nicholls MER, Fielding J, Verdejo-Garcia A, Labuschagne I (2016) Disinhibited left-lateralised neural mechanisms when processing threatening emotions in persons who respond vicariously towards others in pain (review)

    Google Scholar 

  • Godinho F, Faillenot I, Perchet C, Frot M, Magnin M, Garcia-Larrea L (2012) How the pain of others enhances our pain: searching the cerebral correlates of ‘compassional hyperalgesia’. Eur J Pain 16(5):748–759

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Halifax J (2011) The precious necessity of compassion. J Pain Symptom Manage 41(1):146–153

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Halpern J (2010) From detached concern to empathy: humanizing medical practice. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Hein G, Silani G, Preuschoff K, Batson CD, Singer T (2010) Neural responses to ingroup and outgroup members’ suffering predict individual differences in costly helping. Neuron 68(1):149–160

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ho SS, Konrath S, Brown S, Swain JE (2014) Empathy and stress related neural responses in maternal decision making. Front Neurosci 8:152

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hojat M, Louis DZ, Markham FW, Wender R, Rabinowitz C, Gonnella JS (2011) Physicians’ empathy and clinical outcomes for diabetic patients. Acad Med 86(3):359–364

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Huikuri HV, Stein PK (2013) Heart rate variability in risk stratification of cardiac patients. Prog Cardiovasc Dis 56(2):153–159

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson PL, Meltzoff AN, Decety J (2005) How do we perceive the pain of others? A window into the neural processes involved in empathy. Neuroimage 24:771–779

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kemp AH, Quintana DS, Felmingham KL, Matthews S, Jelinek HF (2012) Depression, comorbid anxiety disorders, and heart rate variability in physically healthy, unmedicated patients: implications for cardiovascular risk. PLoS One 7(2), Article id: e30777

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim SS, Kaplowitz S, Johnston MV (2004) The effects of physician empathy on patient satisfaction and compliance. Eval Health Prof 27(3):237–251

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kim JW, Kim SE, Kim JJ, Jeong B, Park CH, Son AR, Song JE, Ki SW (2009) Compassionate attitude towards others’ suffering activates the mesolimbic neural system. Neuropsychologia 47(10):2073–2081

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamm C, Decety J, Singer T (2011) Meta-analytic evidence for common and distinct neural networks associated with directly experienced pain and empathy for pain. Neuroimage 54(3):2492–2502

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lang PJ, Bradley MM, Cuthbert BN (1997) Motivated attention: affect, activation and action. In: Lang PJ, Simons RF, Balaban M (eds) Attention and orienting: sensory and motivational processes, vol 1. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, pp 97–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Leiberg S, Eippert F, Veit R, Anders S (2012) Intentional social distance regulation alters affective responses towards victims of violence: an FMRI study. Hum Brain Mapp 33(10):2464–2476

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Li Z, Yin M, Lyu XL, Zhang LL, Du XD, Hung GCL (2016) Delayed effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on negative symptoms of schizophrenia: findings from a randomized controlled trial. Psychiatry Res 240:333–335

    Google Scholar 

  • Maister L, Banissy MJ, Tsakiris M (2013) Mirror-touch synaesthesia changes representations of self-identity. Neuropsychologia 51(5):802–808

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Marshall AA, Smith RC (1995) Physicians’ emotional reactions to patients: recognizing and managing countertransference. Am J Gastroenterol 90(1):4–8

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McRae K, Gross JJ, Weber J, Robertson ER, Sokol-Hessner P, Ray RD, Gabrieli JDE, Ochsner KN (2012) The development of emotion regulation: an fMRI study of cognitive reappraisal in children, adolescents and young adults. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 7(1):11–22

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Melzack R, Casey KL (1968) Sensory, motivational, and central control determinants of pain: a new conceptual model. In: Kenshalo D (ed) The skin senses. Springfield, Charles Thomas

    Google Scholar 

  • Mercer SW, Reynolds WJ (2002) Empathy and quality of care. Br J Gen Pract 52(Suppl):S9–12

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Molenberghs P (2013) The neuroscience of in-group bias. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 37:1530–1536

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mu Y, Fan Y, Mao L, Han S (2008) Event-related theta and alpha oscillations mediate empathy for pain. Brain Res 1234:128–136

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Murray RJ, Debbane M, Fox PT, Bzdok D, Eickhoff SB (2015) Functional connectivity mapping of regions associated with self- and other-processing. Hum Brain Mapp 36(4):1304–1324

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nazarewicz J, Verdejo-Garcia A, Giummarra MJ (2015) Sympathetic pain? A role of poor parasympathetic nervous system engagement in vicarious pain states. Psychophysiology 52(11):1529–1537

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neumann M, Wirtz M, Bollschweiler E, Mercer SW, Warm M, Wolf J, Pfaff H (2007) Determinants and patient-reported long-term outcomes of physician empathy in oncology: a structural equation modelling approach. Patient Educ Couns 69(1–3):63–75

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ochsner KN, Bunge SA, Gross JJ, Gabrieli JDE (2002) Rethinking feelings: an fMRI study of the cognitive regulation of emotion. J Cogn Neurosci 14(8):1215–1229

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Osborn J, Derbyshire SWG (2010) Pain sensation evoked by observing injury in others. Pain 148(2):268–274

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Preston SD, de Waal FBM (2002) Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases. Behav Brain Sci 25:1–72

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rajendra Acharya U, Paul Joseph K, Kannathal N, Lim CM, Suri JS (2006) Heart rate variability: a review. Med Biol Eng Comput 44(12):1031–1051

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rapinesi C, Del Casale A, Scatena P, Kotzalidis GD, Di Pietro S, Ferri VR, Bersani FS, Brugnoli R, Raccah RN, Zangen A, Ferracuti S, Orzi F, Girardi P, Sette G (2016) Add-on deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (dTMS) for the treatment of chronic migraine: a preliminary study. Neurosci Lett 623:7–12

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reniers RLEP, Corcoran R, Drake R, Shryane NM, Voellm BA (2011) The QCAE: a questionnaire of cognitive and affective empathy. J Pers Assess 93(1):84–95

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Robins PM, Meltzer L, Zelikovsky N (2009) The experience of secondary traumatic stress upon care providers working within a children’s hospital. J Pediatr Nurs 24(4):270–279

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Singer T, Seymour B, O’Doherty J, Kaube H, Dolan RJ, Frith C (2004) Empathy for pain involves the affective but not sensory components of pain. Science 303(5661):1157–1162

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Squier RW (1990) A model of empathic understanding and adherence to treatment regimens in practitioner-patient relationships. Soc Sci Med 30(3):325–339

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stephen L (1882) The science of ethics. Smith, Elder and Co, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor SE (2006) Tend and befriend: biobehavioral bases of affiliation under stress. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 15(6):273–277

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor SE, Cousino Klein L, Lewis BP, Gruenewald TL, Gurung RAR, Updegraff AJ (2000) Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: tend-and-befriend, not fight-or-flight. Psychol Rev 107:411–429

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Thayer JF, Ahs F, Fredrikson M, Sollers JJ III, Wager TD (2012) A meta-analysis of heart rate variability and neuroimaging studies: implications for heart rate variability as a marker of stress and health. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 36(2):747–756

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tousignant-Laflamme Y, Rainville P, Marchand S (2005) Establishing a link between heart rate and pain in healthy subjects: a gender effect. J Pain 6(6):341–347

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tracy LM, Giummarra MJ (2016) Clinician empathy towards patients with pain (under prep.)

    Google Scholar 

  • Vachon-Presseau E, Martel MO, Roy M, Caron E, Jackson PL, Rainville P (2011) The multilevel organization of vicarious pain responses: effects of pain cues and empathy traits on spinal nociception and acute pain. Pain 152(7):1525–1531

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van Diest I, Bradley MM, Guerra P, Van den Bergh O, Lang PJ (2009) Fear-conditioned respiration and its association to cardiac reactivity. Biol Psychol 80(2):212–217

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vandenbroucke S, Crombez G, Van Ryckeghem DM, Brass M, Van Damme S, Goubert L (2013) Vicarious pain while observing another in pain: an experimental approach. Front Hum Neurosci 7:265

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Vandenbroucke S, Crombez G, Loeys T, Goubert L (2014) Observing another in pain facilitates vicarious experiences and modulates somatosensory experiences. Front Hum Neurosci 8:631

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Vandenbroucke S, Crombez G, Loeys T, Goubert L (2015) Vicarious experiences and detection accuracy while observing pain and touch: the effect of perspective taking. Attent Percept Psychophys

    Google Scholar 

  • von Baeyer CL (2014) Sensitization and catastrophizing: introspection confirmed experimentally. Pain Research Forum. Retrieved 12/06/2016, from http://painresearchforum.org/forums/discussion/37588-sensitization-and-catastrophizing-introspection-confirmed-experimentally

  • Wager TD, Atlas LY, Lindquist MA, Roy M, Woo CW, Kross E (2013) An fMRI-based neurologic signature of physical pain. N Engl J Med 368(15):1388–1397

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward J, Banissy M (2015) Explaining mirror-touch synaesthesia. Cogn Neurosci 6(2–3):118–133

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Williams F, Hasking P (2010) Emotion regulation, coping and alcohol use as moderators in the relationship between non-suicidal self-injury and psychological distress. Prev Sci 11(1):33–41

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Williams A, O’Driscoll K, Moore C (2014) The influence of empathic concern on prosocial behavior in children. Front Psychol 5:425

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

MJG and BMF are supported by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Early Career Fellowships (APP1036124; APP1070073).

Disclosures

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. The qualitative insights and data reported in this chapter were collected from studies that had been approved by the university human research ethics committee, and all participants gave written informed consent.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University, 99 Commercial Rd, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia

    Melita J. Giummarra

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, School of Psychological Science, Monash University, Wellington Rd, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia

    Lincoln M. Tracy & Kurtis A. Young

  3. Faculty of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences, Central Clinical School, Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia

    Bernadette M. Fitzgibbon

Authors
  1. Melita J. Giummarra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lincoln M. Tracy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kurtis A. Young
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Bernadette M. Fitzgibbon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melita J. Giummarra .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities, Department of Philosophy and Gender Studies, University of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia

    Simon van Rysewyk

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Giummarra, M.J., Tracy, L.M., Young, K.A., Fitzgibbon, B.M. (2016). The Social Side of Pain: What Does it Mean to Feel Another’s Pain?. In: van Rysewyk, S. (eds) Meanings of Pain. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49022-9_21

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation