The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World

The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World

Author: Elaine Scarry

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1985-09-26

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 0195036018

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Part philosophical meditation, part cultural critique, The Body in Pain is a profoundly original study that has already stirred excitement in a wide range of intellectual circles. The book is an analysis of physical suffering and its relation to the numerous vocabularies and cultural forces--literary, political, philosophical, medical, religious--that confront it. Elaine Scarry bases her study on a wide range of sources: literature and art, medical case histories, documents on torture compiled by Amnesty International, legal transcripts of personal injury trials, and military and strategic writings by such figures as Clausewitz, Churchill, Liddell Hart, and Kissinger, She weaves these into her discussion with an eloquence, humanity, and insight that recall the writings of Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre. Scarry begins with the fact of pain's inexpressibility. Not only is physical pain enormously difficult to describe in words--confronted with it, Virginia Woolf once noted, "language runs dry"--it also actively destroys language, reducing sufferers in the most extreme instances to an inarticulate state of cries and moans. Scarry analyzes the political ramifications of deliberately inflicted pain, specifically in the cases of torture and warfare, and shows how to be fictive. From these actions of "unmaking" Scarry turns finally to the actions of "making"--the examples of artistic and cultural creation that work against pain and the debased uses that are made of it. Challenging and inventive, The Body in Pain is landmark work that promises to spark widespread debate.


Book Synopsis The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World by : Elaine Scarry

Download or read book The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World written by Elaine Scarry and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1985-09-26 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part philosophical meditation, part cultural critique, The Body in Pain is a profoundly original study that has already stirred excitement in a wide range of intellectual circles. The book is an analysis of physical suffering and its relation to the numerous vocabularies and cultural forces--literary, political, philosophical, medical, religious--that confront it. Elaine Scarry bases her study on a wide range of sources: literature and art, medical case histories, documents on torture compiled by Amnesty International, legal transcripts of personal injury trials, and military and strategic writings by such figures as Clausewitz, Churchill, Liddell Hart, and Kissinger, She weaves these into her discussion with an eloquence, humanity, and insight that recall the writings of Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre. Scarry begins with the fact of pain's inexpressibility. Not only is physical pain enormously difficult to describe in words--confronted with it, Virginia Woolf once noted, "language runs dry"--it also actively destroys language, reducing sufferers in the most extreme instances to an inarticulate state of cries and moans. Scarry analyzes the political ramifications of deliberately inflicted pain, specifically in the cases of torture and warfare, and shows how to be fictive. From these actions of "unmaking" Scarry turns finally to the actions of "making"--the examples of artistic and cultural creation that work against pain and the debased uses that are made of it. Challenging and inventive, The Body in Pain is landmark work that promises to spark widespread debate.

The Body in Pain

The Body in Pain

Author: Elaine Scarry

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 9780195049961

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Body in Pain is a profoundly original meditation on the vulnerability of the human body and the literary, political, philosophical, medical, and religious vocabularies used to describe it. Elaine Scarry bases her analysis on a wide array of sources, including literature and art, medical case histories, documents on torture compiled by Amnesty International, and the writings of such figures as Clausewitz, Churchill, and Kissinger. The author begins with the fact of pain's inexpressibility, noting not only the difficulty of describing pain, but its ability to destroy a sufferer's language. She then analyzes the political consequences of deliberately inflicted pain, particularly in cases of war and torture, showing how regimes "unmake" an individual's world in their exercise of power. From the actions that "unmake" the world Scarry turns to a discussion of actions that "make" the world -- the acts of creativity that produce language and cultural artifacts. Book jacket.


Book Synopsis The Body in Pain by : Elaine Scarry

Download or read book The Body in Pain written by Elaine Scarry and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1985 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Body in Pain is a profoundly original meditation on the vulnerability of the human body and the literary, political, philosophical, medical, and religious vocabularies used to describe it. Elaine Scarry bases her analysis on a wide array of sources, including literature and art, medical case histories, documents on torture compiled by Amnesty International, and the writings of such figures as Clausewitz, Churchill, and Kissinger. The author begins with the fact of pain's inexpressibility, noting not only the difficulty of describing pain, but its ability to destroy a sufferer's language. She then analyzes the political consequences of deliberately inflicted pain, particularly in cases of war and torture, showing how regimes "unmake" an individual's world in their exercise of power. From the actions that "unmake" the world Scarry turns to a discussion of actions that "make" the world -- the acts of creativity that produce language and cultural artifacts. Book jacket.

The Body in Pain

The Body in Pain

Author: Elaine Scarry

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1985-09-26

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 0199741220

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Part philosophical meditation, part cultural critique, The Body in Pain is a profoundly original study that has already stirred excitement in a wide range of intellectual circles. The book is an analysis of physical suffering and its relation to the numerous vocabularies and cultural forces--literary, political, philosophical, medical, religious--that confront it. Elaine Scarry bases her study on a wide range of sources: literature and art, medical case histories, documents on torture compiled by Amnesty International, legal transcripts of personal injury trials, and military and strategic writings by such figures as Clausewitz, Churchill, Liddell Hart, and Kissinger, She weaves these into her discussion with an eloquence, humanity, and insight that recall the writings of Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre. Scarry begins with the fact of pain's inexpressibility. Not only is physical pain enormously difficult to describe in words--confronted with it, Virginia Woolf once noted, "language runs dry"--it also actively destroys language, reducing sufferers in the most extreme instances to an inarticulate state of cries and moans. Scarry analyzes the political ramifications of deliberately inflicted pain, specifically in the cases of torture and warfare, and shows how to be fictive. From these actions of "unmaking" Scarry turns finally to the actions of "making"--the examples of artistic and cultural creation that work against pain and the debased uses that are made of it. Challenging and inventive, The Body in Pain is landmark work that promises to spark widespread debate.


Book Synopsis The Body in Pain by : Elaine Scarry

Download or read book The Body in Pain written by Elaine Scarry and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1985-09-26 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part philosophical meditation, part cultural critique, The Body in Pain is a profoundly original study that has already stirred excitement in a wide range of intellectual circles. The book is an analysis of physical suffering and its relation to the numerous vocabularies and cultural forces--literary, political, philosophical, medical, religious--that confront it. Elaine Scarry bases her study on a wide range of sources: literature and art, medical case histories, documents on torture compiled by Amnesty International, legal transcripts of personal injury trials, and military and strategic writings by such figures as Clausewitz, Churchill, Liddell Hart, and Kissinger, She weaves these into her discussion with an eloquence, humanity, and insight that recall the writings of Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre. Scarry begins with the fact of pain's inexpressibility. Not only is physical pain enormously difficult to describe in words--confronted with it, Virginia Woolf once noted, "language runs dry"--it also actively destroys language, reducing sufferers in the most extreme instances to an inarticulate state of cries and moans. Scarry analyzes the political ramifications of deliberately inflicted pain, specifically in the cases of torture and warfare, and shows how to be fictive. From these actions of "unmaking" Scarry turns finally to the actions of "making"--the examples of artistic and cultural creation that work against pain and the debased uses that are made of it. Challenging and inventive, The Body in Pain is landmark work that promises to spark widespread debate.

Healing Back Pain

Healing Back Pain

Author: John E. Sarno

Publisher: Balance

Published: 2001-03-15

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 0759520844

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Dr. John E. Sarno's groundbreaking research on TMS (Tension Myoneural Syndrome) reveals how stress and other psychological factors can cause back pain-and how you can be pain free without drugs, exercise, or surgery. Dr. Sarno's program has helped thousands of patients find relief from chronic back conditions. In this New York Times bestseller, Dr. Sarno teaches you how to identify stress and other psychological factors that cause back pain and demonstrates how to heal yourself--without drugs, surgery or exercise. Find out: Why self-motivated and successful people are prone to Tension Myoneural Syndrome (TMS) How anxiety and repressed anger trigger muscle spasms How people condition themselves to accept back pain as inevitable With case histories and the results of in-depth mind-body research, Dr. Sarno reveals how you can recognize the emotional roots of your TMS and sever the connections between mental and physical pain...and start recovering from back pain today.


Book Synopsis Healing Back Pain by : John E. Sarno

Download or read book Healing Back Pain written by John E. Sarno and published by Balance. This book was released on 2001-03-15 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr. John E. Sarno's groundbreaking research on TMS (Tension Myoneural Syndrome) reveals how stress and other psychological factors can cause back pain-and how you can be pain free without drugs, exercise, or surgery. Dr. Sarno's program has helped thousands of patients find relief from chronic back conditions. In this New York Times bestseller, Dr. Sarno teaches you how to identify stress and other psychological factors that cause back pain and demonstrates how to heal yourself--without drugs, surgery or exercise. Find out: Why self-motivated and successful people are prone to Tension Myoneural Syndrome (TMS) How anxiety and repressed anger trigger muscle spasms How people condition themselves to accept back pain as inevitable With case histories and the results of in-depth mind-body research, Dr. Sarno reveals how you can recognize the emotional roots of your TMS and sever the connections between mental and physical pain...and start recovering from back pain today.

Bodies of Pain

Bodies of Pain

Author: Scott E. Pincikowski

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-12-16

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1136715819

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.


Book Synopsis Bodies of Pain by : Scott E. Pincikowski

Download or read book Bodies of Pain written by Scott E. Pincikowski and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-16 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Body Doesn't Lie

The Body Doesn't Lie

Author: Vicky Vlachonis

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2014-04-22

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 0062243667

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Foreword by Gwyneth Paltrow Integrative medical practitioner to the stars and Goop contributor Vicky Vlachonis offers a groundbreaking program to eliminate pain and look and feel your best every day. In The Body Doesn’t Lie: The Three-Step Program to End Chronic Pain and Become Positively Radiant, Vicky Vlachonis focuses on pain release instead of on pain relief. Back problems, nightly headaches, tight shoulders, achy feet-all of us have nagging, daily pains that seem to get worse when our lives get most busy. While the immediate reaction to pain is to take short-term measures to make it go away, this does nothing to address the underlying cause. Vlachonis shows us how to locate the source of our pain, understand its origin and manifestation in the body, and then let it go for good, using a holistic approach that includes easy-to-implement approaches to diet, exercise, and emotional well-being. Vlachonis’ proven and successful pain eradication program was developed over years working with a wide range of clients, from celebrities and CEOs to overworked ballerinas and working moms. The book includes a detailed meal plan with recipes, body maps to identify areas of pain and healing touch points, and step-by-step remedies for specific issues including fatigue, digestive problems, and depression. This groundbreaking approach uses pain as a tool—not the undefeatable enemy—to help you look and feel better immediately, and release your body from physical and emotional pain for good.


Book Synopsis The Body Doesn't Lie by : Vicky Vlachonis

Download or read book The Body Doesn't Lie written by Vicky Vlachonis and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-04-22 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foreword by Gwyneth Paltrow Integrative medical practitioner to the stars and Goop contributor Vicky Vlachonis offers a groundbreaking program to eliminate pain and look and feel your best every day. In The Body Doesn’t Lie: The Three-Step Program to End Chronic Pain and Become Positively Radiant, Vicky Vlachonis focuses on pain release instead of on pain relief. Back problems, nightly headaches, tight shoulders, achy feet-all of us have nagging, daily pains that seem to get worse when our lives get most busy. While the immediate reaction to pain is to take short-term measures to make it go away, this does nothing to address the underlying cause. Vlachonis shows us how to locate the source of our pain, understand its origin and manifestation in the body, and then let it go for good, using a holistic approach that includes easy-to-implement approaches to diet, exercise, and emotional well-being. Vlachonis’ proven and successful pain eradication program was developed over years working with a wide range of clients, from celebrities and CEOs to overworked ballerinas and working moms. The book includes a detailed meal plan with recipes, body maps to identify areas of pain and healing touch points, and step-by-step remedies for specific issues including fatigue, digestive problems, and depression. This groundbreaking approach uses pain as a tool—not the undefeatable enemy—to help you look and feel better immediately, and release your body from physical and emotional pain for good.

Sacred Pain

Sacred Pain

Author: Ariel Glucklich

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2003-10-30

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0199839492

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Why would anyone seek out the very experience the rest of us most wish to avoid? Why would religious worshipers flog or crucify themselves, sleep on spikes, hang suspended by their flesh, or walk for miles through scorching deserts with bare and bloodied feet? In this insightful new book, Ariel Glucklich argues that the experience of ritual pain, far from being a form of a madness or superstition, contains a hidden rationality and can bring about a profound transformation of the consciousness and identity of the spiritual seeker. Steering a course between purely cultural and purely biological explanations, Glucklich approaches sacred pain from the perspective of the practitioner to fully examine the psychological and spiritual effects of self-hurting. He discusses the scientific understanding of pain, drawing on research in fields such as neuropsychology and neurology. He also ranges over a broad spectrum of historical and cultural contexts, showing the many ways mystics, saints, pilgrims, mourners, shamans, Taoists, Muslims, Hindus, Native Americans, and indeed members of virtually every religion have used pain to achieve a greater identification with God. He examines how pain has served as a punishment for sin, a cure for disease, a weapon against the body and its desires, or a means by which the ego may be transcended and spiritual sickness healed. "When pain transgresses the limits," the Muslim mystic Mizra Asadullah Ghalib is quoted as saying, "it becomes medicine." Based on extensive research and written with both empathy and critical insight, Sacred Pain explores the uncharted inner terrain of self-hurting and reveals how meaningful suffering has been used to heal the human spirit.


Book Synopsis Sacred Pain by : Ariel Glucklich

Download or read book Sacred Pain written by Ariel Glucklich and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-10-30 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why would anyone seek out the very experience the rest of us most wish to avoid? Why would religious worshipers flog or crucify themselves, sleep on spikes, hang suspended by their flesh, or walk for miles through scorching deserts with bare and bloodied feet? In this insightful new book, Ariel Glucklich argues that the experience of ritual pain, far from being a form of a madness or superstition, contains a hidden rationality and can bring about a profound transformation of the consciousness and identity of the spiritual seeker. Steering a course between purely cultural and purely biological explanations, Glucklich approaches sacred pain from the perspective of the practitioner to fully examine the psychological and spiritual effects of self-hurting. He discusses the scientific understanding of pain, drawing on research in fields such as neuropsychology and neurology. He also ranges over a broad spectrum of historical and cultural contexts, showing the many ways mystics, saints, pilgrims, mourners, shamans, Taoists, Muslims, Hindus, Native Americans, and indeed members of virtually every religion have used pain to achieve a greater identification with God. He examines how pain has served as a punishment for sin, a cure for disease, a weapon against the body and its desires, or a means by which the ego may be transcended and spiritual sickness healed. "When pain transgresses the limits," the Muslim mystic Mizra Asadullah Ghalib is quoted as saying, "it becomes medicine." Based on extensive research and written with both empathy and critical insight, Sacred Pain explores the uncharted inner terrain of self-hurting and reveals how meaningful suffering has been used to heal the human spirit.

Pictures of the Body

Pictures of the Body

Author: James Elkins

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 9780804730242

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In a wide-ranging argument moving from Sumerian demons to Lucian Freud, from Syriac prayer books to John Carpenter's film The Thing, this book explores the ways the body has been represented through time. A response to the vertiginous increase in writings on bodily representations, it attempts to form a single coherent account of the possible forms of representation of the body. This work brings together concerns, images, and concepts from a wide range of perspectives: art history and criticism, the history and philosophy of medicine, the history of race, phenomenological and post-phenomenological thought, studies of feminism and pornography, and the new interest in visual studies. Yet it is less a philosopher's look at history or a historian's foray into philosophy than a practical and critical look at the current constellation of art practices. Above all, it is intended to be of immediate use in the conceptualization and production of visual art and its history.


Book Synopsis Pictures of the Body by : James Elkins

Download or read book Pictures of the Body written by James Elkins and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a wide-ranging argument moving from Sumerian demons to Lucian Freud, from Syriac prayer books to John Carpenter's film The Thing, this book explores the ways the body has been represented through time. A response to the vertiginous increase in writings on bodily representations, it attempts to form a single coherent account of the possible forms of representation of the body. This work brings together concerns, images, and concepts from a wide range of perspectives: art history and criticism, the history and philosophy of medicine, the history of race, phenomenological and post-phenomenological thought, studies of feminism and pornography, and the new interest in visual studies. Yet it is less a philosopher's look at history or a historian's foray into philosophy than a practical and critical look at the current constellation of art practices. Above all, it is intended to be of immediate use in the conceptualization and production of visual art and its history.

The Myth of Pain

The Myth of Pain

Author: Valerie Gray Hardcastle

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 9780262582100

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Valerie Gray Hardcastle argues that both professional and lay definitions of pain are wrongheaded -- with consequences for how pain and pain patients are treated, how psychological disorders are understood, and how clinicians define the mind/body relationship. Pain, although very common, is little understood. Worse still, according to Valerie Gray Hardcastle, both professional and lay definitions of pain are wrongheaded -- with consequences for how pain and pain patients are treated, how psychological disorders are understood, and how clinicians define the mind/body relationship. Hardcastle offers a biologically based complex theory of pain processing, inhibition, and sensation and then uses this theory to make several arguments: (1) psychogenic pains do not exist; (2) a general lack of knowledge about fundamental brain function prevents us from distinguishing between mental and physical causes, although the distinction remains useful; (3) most pain talk should be eliminated from both the folk and academic communities; and (4) such a biological approach is useful generally for explaining disorders in pain processing. She shows how her analysis of pain can serve as a model for the analysis of other psychological disorders and suggests that her project be taken as a model for the philosophical analysis of disorders in psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience.


Book Synopsis The Myth of Pain by : Valerie Gray Hardcastle

Download or read book The Myth of Pain written by Valerie Gray Hardcastle and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Valerie Gray Hardcastle argues that both professional and lay definitions of pain are wrongheaded -- with consequences for how pain and pain patients are treated, how psychological disorders are understood, and how clinicians define the mind/body relationship. Pain, although very common, is little understood. Worse still, according to Valerie Gray Hardcastle, both professional and lay definitions of pain are wrongheaded -- with consequences for how pain and pain patients are treated, how psychological disorders are understood, and how clinicians define the mind/body relationship. Hardcastle offers a biologically based complex theory of pain processing, inhibition, and sensation and then uses this theory to make several arguments: (1) psychogenic pains do not exist; (2) a general lack of knowledge about fundamental brain function prevents us from distinguishing between mental and physical causes, although the distinction remains useful; (3) most pain talk should be eliminated from both the folk and academic communities; and (4) such a biological approach is useful generally for explaining disorders in pain processing. She shows how her analysis of pain can serve as a model for the analysis of other psychological disorders and suggests that her project be taken as a model for the philosophical analysis of disorders in psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience.

Bodies in Pain

Bodies in Pain

Author: Tarja Laine

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2017-04

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1785335219

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The films of Darren Aronofsky invite emotional engagement by means of affective resonance between the film and the spectator’s lived body. Aronofsky’s films, which include a rich range of production from Requiem for a Dream to Black Swan, are often considered “cerebral” because they explore topics like mathematics, madness, hallucinations, obsessions, social anxiety, addiction, psychosis, schizophrenia, and neuroscience. Yet this interest in intelligence and mental processes is deeply embedded in the operations of the body, shared with the spectator by means of a distinctively corporeal audiovisual style. Bodies in Pain looks at how Aronofsky’s films engage the spectator in an affective form of viewing that involves all the senses, ultimately engendering a process of (self) reflection through their emotional dynamics.


Book Synopsis Bodies in Pain by : Tarja Laine

Download or read book Bodies in Pain written by Tarja Laine and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2017-04 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The films of Darren Aronofsky invite emotional engagement by means of affective resonance between the film and the spectator’s lived body. Aronofsky’s films, which include a rich range of production from Requiem for a Dream to Black Swan, are often considered “cerebral” because they explore topics like mathematics, madness, hallucinations, obsessions, social anxiety, addiction, psychosis, schizophrenia, and neuroscience. Yet this interest in intelligence and mental processes is deeply embedded in the operations of the body, shared with the spectator by means of a distinctively corporeal audiovisual style. Bodies in Pain looks at how Aronofsky’s films engage the spectator in an affective form of viewing that involves all the senses, ultimately engendering a process of (self) reflection through their emotional dynamics.