On the pathologising of pain

As regards the "pain" issue and the cultural valorisation thereof, this does seem to be a feature of Western culture per se. I think that many of the psychiatric 'diagnoses' have to do with regulating the way we experience pain. The big 'no-no', apparently, is to make of one's pain some kind of issue; some kind of separating factor. On the other hand, the problem with what may be an attempt to correct an unhelpful association by ignoring it or casting it to one side is that it becomes no longer possible to talk about the full range of human experience anymore. Pains, of various sorts, are part of human experience -- and, indeed, they need not seem so negative after they are spoken about.

The inability to speak of them is what makes them seem greater than they are.