As neuroscientific research shows, even the immediate sensation of pain is shaped by psychological state and interpretation. Many individuals and cultures find meaning, particularly religious meaning, even in chronic and inexplicable pain. This interdisciplinary book includes not only essays but also discussions among a wide range of specialists.

1. Introduction Sarah Coakley 2. Opening Remarks Arthur Kleinman Response from Anne Harrington Part I: Pain at the Interface of Biology and Culture 3. Deconstructing Pain--A Deterministic Dissection of the Molecular Basis of Pain Clifford Woolf 4. Setting The Stage For Pain: Allegorical Tales From Neuroscience Howard Fields Response from Anne Harrington: Is Pain Differentially Embodied? Response from Elaine Scarry: Pain and the Embodiment of Culture Discussion: Is There Life Left in the Gate Control Theory? Discussion: The Success of Reductionism in Pain Treatment Part II: Beyond "Coping": Religious Practices of Transformation 5. Palliative or Intensification? Pain and Christian Contemplation in the Spirituality of the 16th-Century Carmelites Sarah Coakley 6. Pain and the Suffering Consciousness: The Alleviation of Suffering in Buddhist Discourse Luis Gomez Response from Arthur Kleinman: The Incommensurable Richness of "Experience" Response from Jon Levenson: The Theology of Pain and Suffering in the Jewish Tradition Discussion: The "Relaxation Response": Can it Explain Religious Transformation? Discussion: Reductionism and the Separation of Suffering and Pain Discussion: The Instrumentality of Pain in Christianity and Buddhism Part III: Grief and Pain: The Mediation of Pain in Music 7. Voice, Metaphysics, and Community: Pain and Transformation in the Finnish Karelian Ritual Lament Elizabeth Tolbert 8. Music, Trancing and the Absence of Pain Judith Becker Response from John Brust: Music as Ecstasy and Music as Trance Response from Kay Shelemay: Thinking About Music and Pain Discussion: The Presentation and Representation of Emotion in Music Discussion: Neurobiological Views of Music, Emotion, and the Body Discussion: Ritual and Expectation Part IV: Pain, Ritual and the Somatomoral: Beyond the Individual 9. Pain and Humanity in the Confucian Learning of the Heart-and-Mind Tu Weiming Response from Laurence Kirmayer: Reflections from Psychiatry on Emergent Mind and Empathy 10. Painful Memories: Ritual and the Transformation of Community Trauma Jennifer Cole Response from Stanley Tambiah: Collective Memory as a Witness to Collective Pain Discussion: Pain, Healing, and Memory Part V: Pain as Isolation or Community? Literary and Aesthetic Representations 11. Physical Pain and the Ground of Creating Elaine Scarry 12. The Poetics of Anaesthesia: Representations of Pain in the Literatures of Classical India Martha Ann Selby Response from Richard Wolf: Doubleness, matam, and Muharram Drumming in South Asia Discussion: The Dislocation, Representation, and Communication of Pain Part VI: When Is Pain Not Suffering and Suffering Not Pain?: Self, Ethics and Transcendence 13. On the Cultural Mediation of Pain Laurence Kirmayer Discussion: The Notion of Face 14. The Place of Pain in the Space of Good and Evil Nicholas Wolterstorff Response from Charles Hallisey: The Problem of Action 15. Afterword Sarah Coakley

The sixth and last of the Harvard Mind/Brain/Behavior interdisciplinary books, the most ambitious, and the most truly interdisciplinary of all. This book covers the waterfront in current pain research, from what we know about the biological concepts of pain in literature, the effects of music on pain, and even the moral worth of pain.