What is Pain?

[Endy0816]

We know people who lack the ability to feel pain. Doesn't really help them any though, as it leads to continually injuring themselves.

Would be nice if the pain from long term untreatable damage could be blocked or in cases where there's an issue in the nervous system.

[Curious layman]

2 hours ago, Endy0816 said:

We know people who lack the ability to feel pain. Doesn't really help them any though, as it leads to continually injuring themselves.

Would be nice if the pain from long term untreatable damage could be blocked or in cases where there's an issue in the nervous system.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_insensitivity_to_pain

Abstract...

Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP), also known as congenital analgesia is one or more rare conditions in which a person cannot feel (and has never felt) physical pain.... Because feeling physical pain is vital for survival, CIP is an extremely dangerous condition. It is common for people with the condition to die in childhood due to injuries or illnesses going unnoticed. Burn injuries are among the more common injuries.

Maybe conditions like this and other diseases will help us better understand the nervous system, and make it possible to turn off the pain. Although not 100% off, just 90% or something.

 

Edited July 25, 2019 by Curious layman

[jajrussel]

Pain is animate matter responding to external stimuli's, generally a learned response that animate matter can physically adapt to as in as a child and young man I ran barefoot and dealt with emotions much more easily than I do now. Evidently the receptors/ sensors need to be present and in good working order. Perhaps the term good is a little too optimistic. Pain as a  term should be considered very broadly as in inflammation is an external stimulus response as is communication.

On 7/9/2019 at 9:01 AM, StringJunky said:

Do we understand the essential ontology of anything? All we can do is surround a thing with words without actually ever capturing and consuming it to the extent of understanding its underlying nature; we are limited by our available means of expression and symbology.

This is a science forum so I expect to read a lot of smart things here, but I think String-junky exceeded the norm with this post