Models of Pain and Suffering: Foundations for an Ethic of Compassion

Abstract

This congress is a testimony to the fact that neurosurgery is deeply concerned with the problem of pain. In fact, neurosurgery is so extensively involved in problems of pain that some neurosurgeons have come to believe they have a special claim on this problem within the medical world. They believe that pain is their province. This is true in some respects, for the history of neurosurgery is marked with many efforts to test pathways of pain conduction and an ever more sophisticated range of surgical procedures from Gasserian ganglionectomy in the nineteenth century to today’s most sophisticated surgical interventions for the relief of pain. On the other hand, this Academy’s program is witness to the attitude that “the problem of pain” is not properly addressed even in the world of medicine until one acquires the knowledge and insight that can be provided by thorough consultation with a wide range of humanistic and scientific disciplines.