Co-author Farrin Foster talks about pain science

Although pain is a universal human experience, an accurate understanding of it isn’t intuitive.

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Instinctively, we construct a model of pain using flawed links. We remember the immense pain we felt after breaking our wrist and the pain that occurred when we were scalded by boiling hot water. In this way, a pain-as-damage narrative is repeatedly reinforced by our experiences.

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Being able to unpick this traditional, seemingly logically sound, yet still unhelpful way of thinking about pain is the first great challenge in understanding pain.

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Farrin Foster is a freelance writer and co-author of Permission to Move. Click the link in our profile to read Chapter One in full on the book’s website, in which Farrin writes about pain and its (unavoidable) role in our lives. 

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Photo by Tyrone Ormsby.