A hermeneuticalphenomenological analysis of 42 narratives of pain in everyday life leads to the conclusion that psychological pain is pain. Psychological and physical pain have similar phenomenological structures. Both are felt bodily performances that entail at least temporarily a disabling of a potentiality for action. Pain is a performance of affliction of a person in a social situation. The category of psychological and physical pains arises from cultural conceptions of the nature of the person. This category reveals that pain can afflict the person in any aspect of existence. A categorization closer to the phenomena differentiates pains on the basis of what aspect of existence is afflicted. In conclusion, differences between pain and suffering are explored.
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