Overview

"In ""The Pain Chronicles"", a singular and deeply humane work, Melanie Thernstrom traces conceptions of pain throughout the ages - from ancient Babylonian pain-banishing spells to modern brain imaging - to reveal the elusive, mysterious nature of pain itself. Interweaving first-person reflections on her own battle with chronic pain, incisive reportage from leading-edge pain clinics and medical research, and insights from a wide range of disciplines - science, history, religion, philosophy, anthropology, literature, and art - Thernstrom shows that when dealing with pain we are neither as advanced as we imagine nor as helpless as we may fear. Both a personal meditation and an intellectual exploration, ""The Pain Chronicles"" illuminates and makes sense of the all-too-human experience of pain - and confronts with extraordinary grace and empathy its peculiar traits, its harrowing effects, and its various antidotes."

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9780865476813

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Reviews

Praise for The Pain Chronicles <br> <p> Profound and engrossing, this exploration of pain is a pleasure. -- People <br> [ The Pain Chronicles ] is an expansive, invigorating mix of medical reportage, history, memoir and cultural criticism . . . At other times she is a fiercely knowledgeable science writer, delivering case studies and research findings with a storyteller's verve . . . But The Pain Chronicles is no mere self-help manual. It's a sophisticated, elegantly compiled treatise--as wide-ranging, complex and defiant as pain itself. --Robin Romm, The New York Times Book Review <br> An ingenious mix of science, history, investigative journalism, and memoir. --Alec Solomita, The Boston Globe <br> A comprehensive and thoroughly engaging portrait of a force that all of us have experienced, but few of us truly understand. --Ryan Brown, Salon <br> There have been hundreds of books published in the last decades on pain and its management, but none that combin

Praise for The Pain Chronicles <br> <p>&#8220;Profound and engrossing, this exploration of pain is a pleasure.&#8221; &#8212; People <br> &#8220;[ The Pain Chronicles ] is an expansive, invigorating mix of medical reportage, history, memoir and cultural criticism . . . At other times she is a fiercely knowledgeable science writer, delivering case studies and research findings with a storyteller&#8217;s verve . . . But The Pain Chronicles is no mere self-help manual. It&#8217;s a sophisticated, elegantly compiled treatise&#8212;as wide-ranging, complex and defiant as pain itself.&#8221;&#8212;Robin Romm, The New York Times Book Review <br> &#8220;An ingenious mix of science, history, investigative journalism, and memoir.&#8221; &#8212;Alec Solomita, The Boston Globe <br> &#8220;A comprehensive and thoroughly engaging portrait of a force that all of us have experienced, but few of us truly understand.&#8221; &#8212;Ryan Brown, Salon <br> &#8220;There have been hundreds of books pub

Praise for The Pain Chronicles <br> <p> Profound and engrossing, this exploration of pain is a pleasure. -- People <br> [ The Pain Chronicles ] is an expansive, invigorating mix of medical reportage, history, memoir and cultural criticism . . . At other times she is a fiercely knowledgeable science writer, delivering case studies and research findings with a storyteller's verve . . . But The Pain Chronicles is no mere self-help manual. It's a sophisticated, elegantly compiled treatise--as wide-ranging, complex and defiant as pain itself. --Robin Romm, The New York Times Book Review <br> An ingenious mix of science, history, investigative journalism, and memoir. --Alec Solomita, The Boston Globe <br> A comprehensive and thoroughly engaging portrait of a force that all of us have experienced, but few of us truly understand. --Ryan Brown, Salon <br> There have been hundreds of books published in the last decades on pain and its management, but none that combine memoir, scholarly research and journalistic reportage in the way Ms. Thernstrom, the author of two previous books, does. A stellar example of literary nonfiction . . . You can become absorbed, as I was, in the fascinating struggle over the use of anesthesia (and, later, opiates) in 'Pain as History, ' or play voyeur during absorbing clinical vignettes of 'Pain as Disease' . . . Melanie Thernstrom is such an engaging and intelligent writer that I remained intrigued with her investigation even as I disagreed with some of her reportorial choices. --Helen Epstein, The New York Times <br> The Pain Chronicles blends cutting edge research, cultural and medical history, and real people's stories to make sense of the suffering. -- O magazine <br> She covers vast swaths of history, culture, religion and science in short, accessible and beautifully sequenced chapters . . . This book offers an illuminating journey toward new vision and possible relief. -- The Oregonian <br> The

Author Information

"Melanie Thernstrom is a contributing writer to ""The New York Times Magazine"" and the author of ""The Dead Girl"" and ""Halfway Heaven: Diary of a Harvard Murder."""

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