Being in Pain: Using Images and Participatory Methods to Explore Intercultural Understanding of Pain
ISBN: 978-1-80043-007-5, eISBN: 978-1-80043-006-8
Publication date: 3 September 2021
Abstract
Pain is socially and culturally experienced. This chapter builds on previous research into the value of visual images for communicating pain in the UK, which evidenced ways in which images can improve doctor–patient interaction. It discusses ways in which photographs co-created with people living with chronic pain can be catalysts for discussion of pain and suffering in a range of cultural contexts, including higher education and healthcare training. We draw on a pilot project in Delhi, India where images were used as stimuli to dialogue and exploration of shared understanding of pain and current work in UK higher education using visual and other participatory methods. Students have a chance to work with and discuss images which depict qualities and characters of pain. Through seeing and hearing about patients’ experiences of pain, students learn about the commonalities and diversities in people’s experiences of their bodies and minds and how these impact on lives. As future health professionals, their own responses to this are important. Chronic pain can be a disabling condition leaving people vulnerable, with their sense of self and how they are seen by others threatened. People living with pain have to (re)negotiate their identity, with themselves and others, to see who they can be, as well as what they can do in this new state. Exploration of this through visual arts and verbal participatory activities can provide otherwise untapped insights and understandings of the human condition and its diversity. Exploring ways in which this approach could be extended to and adapted to other contexts are part of our future plans.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
The development of the materials used in the study were funded by ACE, AHRC, CHIRP (UCL), UCL Grand Challenges, Friends of UCLH.
The pilot study: Visualising pain: towards an international iconography of pain to improve the communication and management of pain in India and the UK was funded by Research England’s Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) administered via UCL.
Deborah Padfield was supported by St George’s, University of London and Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, while working on this study and chapter.
Mary Wickenden was supported by IDS, University of Sussex while working on this chapter.
Citation
Padfield, D. and Wickenden, M. (2021), "Being in Pain: Using Images and Participatory Methods to Explore Intercultural Understanding of Pain", Kumar, M. and Welikala, T. (Ed.) Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: The Context of Being, Interculturality and New Knowledge Systems, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 145-158. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-006-820211010
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021 Emerald Publishing Limited