The importance of enworlded selfhood for understanding chronic pain-related suffering.

Pain-related suffering involves not only bodily experiences and personal identity but also a middle layer of selfhood called the enworlded self, which connects everyday lifeworld challenges to mood and selfhood. Analyzing a chronic pain memoir reveals three damaged lifeworld regions: the work-world, the family-world, and the patient-world—the latter forming as sufferers seek medical help. Addressing all three layers of selfhood (minimal, enworlded, narrative) and their interactions could improve understanding and alleviation of chronic pain suffering through measures tailored to each individual's attuned pattern of pain experiences.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In the research and literature on pain-related suffering, a difference has recently been made between suffering processes of the minimal self in contrast to the hardships of the narrative self. This article proposes that an in-between layer of selfhood needs to be distinguished and studied to understand pain-related suffering in a more thorough manner: the enworlded self. Pain-related suffering is a complex phenomenon involving mood-related processes and everyday challenges on at least three different levels: lived bodily experiences, lifeworld matters, and questions about personal identity. These three different levels correspond to three connected aspects of layered selfhood: the minimal self, the enworlded self, and the narrative self. By using a published memoire focusing on chronic pain experiences, this article attempts to enlighten the middle ground of enworlded selfhood and also identifies two different regions of the lifeworld in which the damaging and alienating experiences take their toll: the work-world and the family-world. In addition, a third region of the lifeworld is identified: the patient-world, a region which is formed and expands as the chronic-pain sufferer searches for medical-professional advice and assistance. By addressing the three different layers of selfhood and how they interact in the everyday life of the patient, chronic-pain suffering can be better understood and, also, possibly alleviated by taking appropriate measures that fit the attuned pattern of the pain experiences of each individual.