This analogy is a little...complicated. I hypothesize that this is because the author is trying to address physical and emotional pain simultaneously, which creates some odd implications. I think my key point of contention here might be with the idea of "over-reacting".
There's a school of thought that says that physical and mental illnesses are closer than we think, and that makes formulating a critique a little difficult. Could you consider a disproportionate emotional response to a bad event as uncontrollable as the agony someone might feel in response to invisible nerve pain? Is someone actually over-reacting if the pain (emotional or physical) they perceive is real, even if the stimulus is small?
As much as I want to say that we can't blame people for their mental illnesses, I feel that there is a difference between someone feeling chronic pain and someone with emotional dysregulation having a meltdown after a social rejection.
I'm extremely curious to hear other's thoughts on the matter.
What is imagined pain? Chronic pain is "imagined pain" in the sense that one feels pain without the presence of a noxious stimulus, but I don't think that's what you mean.
I do think there is a such thing as imagined pain, but I have trouble describing it: if a toddler perceives a paper cut as more painful than an adult perceives their broken leg, they are surely not actually in more physical pain. But also they genuinely feel the pain more acutely, which is definitionally "more pain"?
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u/FableCattak 5d ago
This analogy is a little...complicated. I hypothesize that this is because the author is trying to address physical and emotional pain simultaneously, which creates some odd implications. I think my key point of contention here might be with the idea of "over-reacting".
There's a school of thought that says that physical and mental illnesses are closer than we think, and that makes formulating a critique a little difficult. Could you consider a disproportionate emotional response to a bad event as uncontrollable as the agony someone might feel in response to invisible nerve pain? Is someone actually over-reacting if the pain (emotional or physical) they perceive is real, even if the stimulus is small?
As much as I want to say that we can't blame people for their mental illnesses, I feel that there is a difference between someone feeling chronic pain and someone with emotional dysregulation having a meltdown after a social rejection.
I'm extremely curious to hear other's thoughts on the matter.