What's Pain?

Social Forums Non-Philosophical Chat
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I’m not really sure how philisophical this question is, perhaps it is psychological, all i know of philosophy is what my friend chatters about on a daily basis- really, he’s very obsessed- but anyways i’ve been thinking a lot about pain lately, and what does everyone think the most painful thing in the world could ever be?

By pain, I don’t limit the definition to physical aspects because those seem some what simplistic to me, although why they happen can be more complex. For example, there was that guy who sawed off his own arm when he got trapped under boulders rock climbing and then drug himself miles back to saftey. There are also rituals done in some tribes which are excruciatingly painful, however are either honorable or just common place. Then there is pain caused by emotion- depression, fear, ect.; the pain that makes your insides ache and everything hurt, i guess an example would be if someone died of heart break.

I guess my real question is, whether pain is something created in our own minds or not?
Perhaps this is just a rant, I wasn’t really sure where to place this.

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The most painful thing in the world would be true heartbreak. I’m talking- you’ve spent 30+ years with this person, shared your life with them, raised children, grown together- shared many critical experiences. This person dies, suddenly or slowly it doesn’t matter, your “other” is gone. This would be sheer agony and thinking of it makes me understand why, mostly in the case of elderly couples, when a spouse dies the living partner usually also dies shortly after. I don’t think I could go on living and it wouldn’t be a question of suicide, it would be something much more.

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Pain is generated by the brain. For example some people who lose a leg due to amputation will feel “phantom pains” in their former leg although it doesn’t exist anymore. The leg or the nerves in the legs don’t create the sensation of pain, the sensation occurs in the brain.

The worse kind of pain is not feeling pain at all. Or when ones genitalia are caught in a zipper.