Imagined and delusional pain

Jennifer Radden

Abstract


Abstract: Extreme pain and suffering are associated with depression as well as tissue damage. The impossibility of imagining any feelings of pain and suffering intersect with two matters: the kind of imagining involved, and the nature of delusions. These two correspond to the sequence of the following discussion, in which it is contended first that feelings of pain and suffering resist being imagined in a certain, key way (defined here as proprietary imagining P simpliciter), and second that, given a certain analysis of delusional thought, this precludes the possibility of delusional affections while allowing delusions about affections (here affective delusions).

Keywords: Pain; Imagination; Delusion; Affection; Feelings

 

Dolore immaginato e dolore illusorio

Riassunto: Dolore estremo e sofferenza sono solitamente associati a depressione e danni tissutali. L’impossibilità di immaginare il provare dolore e sofferenza dipende da due fattori: il tipo di immaginazione coinvolta e la natura dell’illusione. Questi due fattori saranno trattati in parallelo nell’analisi che qui si propone, in cui si discuterà in primo luogo come il provare dolore e sofferenza oppongano resistenza all’essere immaginati in un certo modo (qui indicato come carattere proprietario dell'immaginare P simpliciter) e in secondo luogo come, secondo una certa analisi del pensiero illusorio, questo preclude la possibilità di affezioni illusorie mentre consente illusioni circa le affezioni (qui indicate come illusioni affettive).

Parole chiave: Dolore; Immaginazione; Illusioni; Affezione; Sensazioni


Parole chiave


Pain; Imagination; Delusion; Affection; Feelings

Full Text

PDF

Riferimenti bibliografici


AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION, Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), APA Press, Washington (DC) 1994.

AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION, Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V), APA Press, Washington (DC) 2013.

AYDEDE, M. (2003). Pain. In: E.N ZALTA (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Winter 2003 edition, revised in 2019 – URL: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pain/.

AYDEDE, M. (2006). Pain: New essays on its nature and the methodology of its study, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA).

BAIN, M. (2003). Intentionalism and pain. In: «Philosophical Quarterly», vol. LIII, n. 213, pp. 502-523.

BAIN, M. (2007). The location of pains. In: «Philosophical Papers», vol. XXXVI, n. 2, pp. 171-205.

BAYNE, T., PACHERIE, E. (2005). In defence of the doxastic conception of delusions. In: «Mind and Language», vol. XX, n. 2, pp. 163-188.

BECK, A.T., ALFORD, B.A. (2009). Depression, causes and treatment, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

BORTOLOTTI, L. (2010). Delusions and other irrational beliefs, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

BRANN, E. (1991). The world of imagination: Sum and substance, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA).

CORNS, J. (2012). Are emotions ever painful feelings?, talk given at the Pain and Emotion conference, Pain Project, University of Glasgow, October, unpublished manuscript.

CORNS, J. (2014). The inadequacy of unitary characterizations of pain. In: «Philosophical Studies», vol. CLXIX, n. 3, pp. 355-378.

CORNS, J. (2015). The social pain posit. In: «Australasian Journal of Philosophy», vol. XCIII, n. 3, pp. 561-582.

CORNS, J. (ed.) (2017), The Routledge handbook of philosophy of pain, Routledge, London.

CURRIE, G. (2000). Imagination, delusion, and hallucinations. In: M. COLTHEART, M. DAVIES (eds.), Pathologies of belief, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 167-182.

CURRIE, G., JUREIDINI, J. (2001). Delusion, rationality, empathy. In: «Philosophy, Psychology & Psychiatry», vol. VIII, n. 2-3, pp. 158-162-

CURRIE, G., RAVENSCROFT, I. (202). Recreative minds: Imagination in philosophy and psychology, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

DE SOUSA, R. (1987). The rationality of emotion, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA).

DE VIGNERMONT, F., JACOB, P. (2012). What is it like to feel another’s pain?. In: «Philosophy of Science», vol. LXXIX, n. 2, pp. 295-316.

DEIGH, J. (1994). Cognitivism in the theory of emotions. In: «Ethics», vol. CIV, n. 4, pp. 824-854.

DELLANTONIO, S., PASTORE, L. (2017) Internal perception. The role of bodily information in concepts and word mastery, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg.

DOBBS, D. (2006). A depression switch. In: «The New York Times Magazine», April 2, pp. 50-55.

DUKE, L.A., ALLEN, D.N., ROZEE, P.D., BOMMARITTO, M. (2008). The sensitivity and specificity of flashbacks and nightmares to trauma. In: «Journal of Anxiety Disorder», vol. XXII, n. 2, pp. 319-327.

EISENBERGER, N., LIEBERMAN, M. (2004). Why rejection hurts: A common neural alarm system for physical and social pain. In: «Trends in Cognitive Sciences», vol. VIII, n. 7, pp. 294-300.

ELLIOTT, R., RUBENZSTEIN, J., SAHAKIAN, B.J., DOLAN, R.J. (2002). The neural basis of mood congruent processing biases in depression. In: «Archive of General Psychiatry», vol. LIX, n. 7, pp. 597-604.

ELSNER, A. (2015). The story of pain: From prayers to painkillers/pain and suffering, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

FRIERSON, P. (209). Kant on mental disorder. Part 1: An overview. In: «History of Psychiatry», vol. XX, n. 3, pp. 267-289.

FUCHS, T. (2001). Melancholia as desynchronization: Towards a psychopathology of interpersonal time. In: «Psychopathology», vol. XXXIV, n. 4, pp. 179-186.

FURTAK, R. (2010). Emotion, the bodily, and the cognitive. In: «Philosophical Explorations», vol. XIII, n. 1, pp. 51-64.

GALLAGHER, S. (2012). Time, emotion, and depression. In: «Emotion Review», vol. IV, n. 2, pp. 127-132.

GENDLER, T. (2006). Imaginative resistance revisited. In: S. NICHOLS (ed.), The architecture of the imagination: New essays on pretence, possibility and fiction, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 149-173.

GENDLER, T. (2011). Imagination. In: E.N. ZALTA (ed.), Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, 2011 edition - URL: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/imagination/

GOLDIE, P. (2000). The emotions: A philosophical exploration, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

GOLDMAN, A.I. (2006). Imagination and simulation in audience responses to fiction. In: S. NICHOLS (ed.), The architecture of the imagination: New essays on pretence, possibility, and fiction, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 41-56.

GOLDMAN, A.I. (2009). Précis of Simulating minds: The philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience of mindreading. In: «Philosophical Studies», vol. CXLIV, n. 3, pp. 431-434.

GRAHEK, N. (2007). Feeling pain and being in pain, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA).

GRANT, S. (2008). Emotion, cognition and feeling. In: «Synthesis Philosophica», vol. XXIII, n. 1, pp. 53-71.

GRIFFITHS, P. (1997). What emotions really are: The problem of psychological categories, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

HATZIMOYSIS, A. (2003). Emotional feelings and intentionalism. In: A. HATZIMOYSIS (ed.) Philosophy and the emotions, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 105-111.

HEAL, J. (1986). Replication and functionalism. In: J. BUTTERFIELD (ed.), Language, mind and logic, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp.135-150.

HIRSCH, C.R., HOLMES, E.A. (2007). Mental imagery in anxiety disorders. In: «Psychiatry», vol. VI, n. 4, pp. 161-165.

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF PAIN, Pain terms: A list with definitions and notes on pain. In: «Pain», vol. III, 1986, Supplement, pp. 216-22.

JACKSON, S. (1986). Melancholia and depression, Yale University Press, New Haven.

KANT, I. (1978). Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view (1798), translated by V.L. DOWDELL, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale & Edwardsville.

KANT, I. (1996). The conflict of faculties (1798). In: I. KANT, Religion and rational theology, edited by A.W. WOOD, G. DI GIOVANNI, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 233-327.

KENDLER, K.S. (1991). Mood-incongruent psychotic affective illness. In: «Archives of General Psychiatry», vol. XLVIII, n. 4, pp. 362-369.

KIND, A. (2001). Putting the image back in imagination. In: «Philosophy and Phenomenological Research», vol. LXII, n. 1, pp. 85-109.

KRIPKE, S. (1980). Naming and necessity, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA).

KUKUCHI, A., BABA, T., HASEGAWA, T., SUGENO, N., KONNO, M., MIURA, E., OSHIMA, R., AOKI, M., TAKEDA, A. (2014). Improvement of freezing of gait in patients with Parkinson’s disease by imagining bicycling. In: «Case Reports in Neurology», vol. VI, n. 1, pp. 92-95.

KUMAZAKI, T. (2011). What is a “mood-congruent” delusion? History and conceptual problems. In: «History of Psychiatry», vol. XXII, Pt. 3, pp. 315-332.

LIPINSKI, J.F. JR, POPE, H.G. JR. (1994). Do “flashbacks” represent obsessional imagery?. In: «Comprehensive Psychiatry», vol. XXXV, n. 4, pp. 245-247.

MCKENNA, P. (2007). Delusions: Understanding the un-understandable, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

MONTAGUE, M. (2009). The logic, intentionality, and phenomenology of emotion. In: «Philosophical Studies», vol. CXLV, n. 2, pp. 171-192.

MORAN, R. (1993). The expression of feeling in imagination. In: «The Philosophical Review», vol. CIII, n. 1, pp. 75-106.

NICHOLS, S. (ed.) (2006), The architecture of the imagination: New essays on pretence, possibility, and fiction, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

NOORDHOF, P. (2018). Imaginative content. In: F. MACPHERSON, F. DORSCH (eds.), Perceptual imagination and perceptual memory, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 96-129.

PACHERIE, E. (2011). Self-Agency. In: S. GALLAGHER (ed.), The Oxford handbook of the self, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 442-464.

PANKSEPP, J. (2007). The neuroevolutionary and neuroaffective psychobiology of the prosocial brain. In: L. BARRETT, R. DUNBAR (eds.), The Oxford handbook of evolutionary psychology, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 145-162.

PEACOCKE, C. (1985). Imagination, experience, and possibility: A Berkeleian view defended. In: J. FORSTER, H. ROBINSON (eds.), Essays on Berkeley: A tercentennial celebration., Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 19-35.

PRICE, D.D. (2002). Central neural mechanisms that interrelate sensory and affective dimensions of pain. In: «Molecular Interventions», vol. II, n. 6, pp. 392-403.

PRINZ, J.J. (2004). Gut reactions: A perceptual theory of emotion, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

PRINZ, J.J. (2005). Are emotions feelings?. In: «Journal of Consciousness Studies», vol. XII, n. 8-10, pp. 9-25.

RADDEN, J. ()2009. Emotional pain and psychiatry. In: J. RADDEN (ed.), Moody minds distempered: Essays on melancholy and depression, Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York, pp. 111-129.

RADDEN, J. (2011). On delusion, Routledge, London/New York.

RATCLIFFE, M. (2008). Feeling of being: Phenomenology, psychiatry and the sense of reality, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

RATCLIFFE, M. (2010). The phenomenology of mood and the meaning of life. In: P. GOLDIE (ed.), The Oxford handbook of philosophy of emotion, Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York, pp. 349-371.

RATCLIFFE, M., STEPHAN, A. (eds.) (2014), Depression, emotion and the self: Philosophical and interdisciplinary perspectives, Imprint Academic, Exeter.

REUTER, K., PHILLIPS, D., SYTSMA, J. (2014). Hallucinating pain. In: J. SYTSMA (ed.), Advances in experimental philosophy of mind, Bloomsbury, London/New York/Sydney, pp. 75-99.

SCHROEDER, T., MATHESON, C. (2006). Imagination and emotion. In: S. NICHOLS (ed.) The architecture of imagination: New essays on pretence, possibility, and fiction, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 19-39.

SLABY, J. (2008). Affective intentionality and the feeling body. In: «Phenomenology and Cognitive Science», vol. VII, n. 4, pp. 429-444.

SOLOMON, R. (2010). Emotions, thoughts and feelings: What is a “cognitive theory” of the emotions and does it neglect affectivity?. In: «Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements», vol. LII, pp. 1-18.

STOCKER, M. (1983) Psychic feelings: Their importance and irreducibility. In: «Australasian Journal of Philosophy», vol. LXI, n. 1, pp. 5-26.

STOCKER, M., HEGEMAN, E. (1996). Valuing emotions, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

TYE, M. (2008). The experience of emotion: An intentionalist theory. In: «Revue Internationale de Philosophie», vol. CCXLIII, n. 1, pp. 25-50.

VAN DIJKHUIZEN, J., ENENKEL, K.A.E. (eds.) (2009), The sense of suffering: Constructions of physical pain in early modern culture, Brill, Leiden.

WALTON, K. (1990). Mimesis as make believe, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA).

WHITE, A. (1987). Visualizing and imaginative seeing. In: «Analysis», vol. XLVII, n. 4, pp. 221-224.

WHITE, A. (1990). The language of imagination, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

WHITING, D. (2009). The feeling theory of emotion and the object-directed emotions. In: «European Journal of Philosophy», vol. XIX, n. 2, pp. 291-303.

WILLIAMS, B. (1973). Imagination and the self. In: Problems of the self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 26-45.

WILLIAMS, L.J., JACKA, F.N., PASCO, J.A., DOOD, S., BERK, M. (2006). Depression and pain: An overview. In: «Acta Psychiatrica», vol. XVIII, n. 2, pp. 79-87.

ZAHAVI, D. (2008). Simulation, projection and empathy. In: «Consciousness and Cognition», vol. XVII, n. 2, pp. 514-522.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.4453/rifp.2021.0013

Copyright (c) 2021 Jennifer Radden

URLdella licenza: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Rivista internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia - ISSN: 2039-4667 (print) - E-ISSN: 2239-2629 (online)

Registrazione al Tribunale di Milano n. 634 del 26-11-2010 - Direttore Responsabile: Aurelia Delfino

Web provider Aruba spa - Loc. Palazzetto, 4 - 52011 Bibbiena (AR) - P.IVA 01573850516 - C.F. e R.I./AR 04552920482

Licenza Creative Commons
Dove non diversamente specificato, i contenuti di Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia sono distribuiti con Licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione 4.0 Internazionale.