This book wasn’t quite what I expected and was a bit of a slog at times, but it was interesting enough. The first chapter gets quite technical, but if you stick with it, later chapters are easier to follow. I wasn’t a fan of all of the notes, which really weren’t needed. I also felt like the authors went off on tangents that made their points harder to follow. I wouldn’t recommend this for those with a short attention span or difficulty concentrating.

If you have an academic curiosity about pain, this combination of history, philosophy, stories, and research might be a fine place to start, and the selected references in the back matter offer suggestions for additional investigation. If you are looking for help managing your own pain, this might not be the best place to start. While the book explains how our beliefs and expectations shape our experience of pain, it’s not written as self-help.

Note that some of the stories are a bit gruesome and might be triggering for sensitive readers.

I was provided an unproofed ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review.

I thought this was a decent popular introduction to pain science, and people are dealing with so many kinds of pain right now that I'm seeing a rise in reader interest in and desire for titles like this which help make sense of what so many of us are going through at the current moment.

Insightful and interesting book. Pain serves a purpose and comes in many varieties. I'm not entirely sure which are worse, some pain is easier to live with than others. This book is well written and I would think would appeal to many people. It is worth a read or two.

Such an insightful look into the psychology, biology, nuerology, and history of pain. I loved how this book looked at pain from a multi-faceted, psychonuerosocial perspective. A great resource for those looking to understand trauma and emotional pain, as well as physical pain.

Comprehensive Look At Pain. This book is a seemingly comprehensive look at pain, what it is, how humans handle it, and why it is in at least some cases necessary for our development. What it is *not* is well documented, having only a scant few page "selected works" section to document its various claims - far short of the more routine 25% ish bibliography section of many science books. It is also *not* a biological-exclusive look at the issue, instead covering all aspects from the biological to the psychological to at times even the metaphysical. Still, for anyone interested in the subject it is a worthy read, and a very approachable read to boot. Very much recommended.

An interesting take on pain science. The book delves into the history of pain science and the emotional side of pain. It even delves I to the psychological addiction some have for pain. Deep traumatic pain is explored and the anxiety it produces. An interesting read.