We Know Your Pain. Cultural Dimensions of Pain and Suffering

Sociologists have studied pain as an individual experience, mostly through the lens of medical sociology, leaving the social aspect understudied. This article addresses the gap in our understanding of the cultural constructs around pain and the ways in which these constructs shape our relationship with suffering around and within us. Through a series of semi-structured interviews, I examine the ways in which people talk about the pain of others as well as their own, and I apply the grounded theory method to uncover the patterns that structure the ways in which culture informs our concepts of pain severity. This study reveals the profound ways in which culture and society shape what was traditionally considered a subjective experience.