Saturday, March 24, 2012

Pain... It's all Relative

In Eula Biss's piece "The Pain Scale" she discusses the different levels of pain and the scale which medical professionals now use. She also compares the levels of pain to Dante's circles of hell from his Inferno. I've always wondered where the scales of 1-10 with the cartoon faces on them I see when visiting the doctor originated. I was surprised to learn that this has only been around since the 1970s. I've also wondered how accurate it is in helping with a diagnosis because people have such different levels of pain tolerance so two people faced with the same ailment may not even realize it because one may be in far more pain than the other. Nonetheless I suppose this arbitrary scale has worked for the most part thus far, so why change it? Biss does a good job with her comparisons although they are a bit graphic however it adds imagery to the piece. 



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3 comments:

  1. Alex NMarch 25, 2012 at 4:06 PM

    I think that Biss raised an interesting point byexplaining how subjective pain really is. I believe that a lot of pain is based in your brain, or in other words, you control how you interpret pain. Some of us have a lower tolerance, some a higher, but you really can't determine exactly what another person experiences as "pain."

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  2. ShelbyMarch 26, 2012 at 1:01 PM

    I agree with Alex, I thought the interpretation was really interesting, and I thought it was especially interesting that she used the scale to format her piece while also discrediting it. I've been in the situation where you're asked to give a number and I'm always at a complete loss. So I wonder if it really is working? But even if it isn't, is there actually a better way to go about it? I'm not sure what that would be

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  3. Dana R. HoelleApril 19, 2012 at 9:20 AM

    I agree with your statement "I've also wondered how accurate it is in helping with a diagnosis because people have such different levels of pain tolerance so two people faced with the same ailment may not even realize it because one may be in far more pain than the other." This scale is funny to look at though! I can't believe it is used for real.

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