Announcement Calenda 1236477
On the occasion of the publication of the English translation of Paul Ricoeur's text "Suffering is not pain" in the journal Études ricoeuriennes / Ricoeur Studies (https://lnkd.in/eN5pzYrW), an interdisciplinary study day is being organized at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital.
The fact that this day of reflection is being held in a hospital underlines the urgency of thinking about the place of suffering in medicine, a place that has yet to be fully defined.
While pain was given an international medical definition in 1976, opening the way to numerous fields of research in different sciences and contributing to the development of medical and care practices, suffering remains largely undefined. It is not defined in the medical corpus, nor is it the subject of specifically dedicated professional practices. There seems to be a great divide between pain, perceived as a physical experience that falls within the remit of medicine, and suffering, which is often associated with moral or existential dimensions, and which therefore cannot be addressed or cared for by medicine. Yet every day, healthcare professionals are confronted with patients who are suffering in the hope of relief - suffering that goes beyond the experience of pain felt in the body. Suffering raises ethical issues, particularly with regard to the relationship between carers and sufferers.
These issues call for a rethinking of the understanding of suffering from both a clinical and philosophical perspective, including beyond its partition with pain.
