I found his book to be very valuable (albeit painfully boring) when he talks about the ins and outs of sensory nerves and the dorsal horn and the parabrachial nucleus and so on. Then I think he goes entirely off the rails when he starts theorizing about the anterior insular cortex as the seat of consciousness. Anyway, good use of time overall. I read it a couple years ago I think, and actually mentioned it in this very post at one point.
Anyway, I’m not sure what you’re getting at here. If you’re saying that pain has a useful evolutionary role to play in helping prevent injury and recover from injury, then yeah duh, I don’t need Bud Craig to tell me that, it’s obvious, just look at the horrifyingly self-destructive behavior of many people with insensitivity to pain (see here for lots of nightmare-inducing stories). If pondering “the idea that pain helps prevent and heal injuries” is helpful to someone, then that’s great for them, go for it. I think it would have been strongly counterproductive to me personally, given my idiosyncratic issues and hang-ups. That’s fine; different people are different.
Really great blog—thanks.
I’m curious if you’ve heard of Bud Craig—neuroscientist and researcher who found the neural pathways that confirmed pain is a ‘homeostatic emotion’.
If we can frame pain in this light it becomes a protective ally rather than something to fight against and its threat value vanishes.
Cheers Dan
I found his book to be very valuable (albeit painfully boring) when he talks about the ins and outs of sensory nerves and the dorsal horn and the parabrachial nucleus and so on. Then I think he goes entirely off the rails when he starts theorizing about the anterior insular cortex as the seat of consciousness. Anyway, good use of time overall. I read it a couple years ago I think, and actually mentioned it in this very post at one point.
Anyway, I’m not sure what you’re getting at here. If you’re saying that pain has a useful evolutionary role to play in helping prevent injury and recover from injury, then yeah duh, I don’t need Bud Craig to tell me that, it’s obvious, just look at the horrifyingly self-destructive behavior of many people with insensitivity to pain (see here for lots of nightmare-inducing stories). If pondering “the idea that pain helps prevent and heal injuries” is helpful to someone, then that’s great for them, go for it. I think it would have been strongly counterproductive to me personally, given my idiosyncratic issues and hang-ups. That’s fine; different people are different.