The essential background — the history of pain: definitions

THE ESSENTIAL BACKGROUND — THE HISTORY OF PAIN: DEFINITIONS
The currently accepted definition of pain from the Taxonomy Subcommittee of the International Association for the Study of Pain — I ASP — in its 1979 report reads: 'An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.' In addition it is noted that pain is always a subjective experience — that is to say that pain is only experienced by the person suffering it.'
Each individual learns the application of the word through experiences related to injury in early life. In an earlier definition of pain Dr Harold Merskey, the Canadian psychiatrist working in the pain area, drew attention to the fact that pain was almost always associated with some form of visible or audible behaviour. Califor-nian psychologist Richard Sternbach had already proposed that pain had three components: a component pointing to the pain source as a harmful stimulus signalling possible tissue damage: a pattern of responses permitting recognition of the pain by an observer; and, finally, the subjective or private feeling of hurt.
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Pain

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