Hearing pain, understanding it, then responding to it, according to a multidimensional model, involves working on the relationship between body and mind, in a social context.
Taking charge of a patient in pain means taking care of him or her.
To take care of someone is to take with you a little of their suffering, to understand, to seek to understand this suffering person in his or her body, in his or her entirety. It is then possible to offer care. These include psychotherapies that target pain, pain symptoms and chronic pain syndromes, as well as the patient's overall suffering, in which pain may figure as a symptom or expression of other existential difficulties. Many of these psychotherapies require training, qualification and professionalization.
This book sheds light on the understanding of pain through the psychological sciences.
Anne Masselin-Dubois est psychologue clinicienne, maîtresse de conférences en psychologie clinique et psychopathologie à l’Université de Bourgogne.
Elle est également Secrétaire générale de la Société française d’étude et de traitement de la douleur (SFETD).