The inarticulacy/indescribability of pain: A rejoinder to Mowat

摘要

Introduction:In his commentary "Indescribable pain in literature: a commentary on Crawford", Mowat (2009) raises a series of important questions about the essential nature of pain experience and he does so by bringing the humanities and the social sciences into conversation with one another, a rarity to be sure. I share Mowat's eagerness for forging these kinds of exchanges as they are invariably fruitful. I also share his enthusiasm for illuminating counter-medical and subversive discourses with emancipatory potential. After all, the nature of the public discourse on pain is profoundly meaningful to all of us.