Abstract

We have all felt pain. We enter this world screaming, and we hope to leave it painlessly. In between, our lives are punctuated by moments of pain, often brief and negligible, a mere distraction, but at other times mind-blowingly intense and debilitating, stretching for hours, days, even months and years. Then there are unpleasant experiences such as nausea, an upset stomach, a numb foot or itching scalp, and other kinds of bodily discomfort. Not to mention heartache, bitter disappointment, loss, despair, depression, hopelessness . . .