When Pain Strikes (Volume 14) (Theory Out Of Bounds)

When pain strikes, do you raid the medicine cabinet? Read a self-help manual? Hit the roof? How we in North America respond to pain -- what we think about it, what we say, and what we do -- is the subject of this collection of writings and images.The book's five sections contain a myriad of complex responses to the occurrence of pain: "...measure it" discusses biomedical responses; "...scream and yell" explores therapeutic solutions; "...cut it open" takes up surgical interventions; "...take a pill" looks at pharmacology; and "...intensify it" examines positions that embrace pain. Each section comprises original artwork, scholarly analyses, poetic and literary texts, and discussions by activists. Hailing from the university, the gallery, and the community organization, the authors -- as TV watchers, recreational drug users, recipients of medical attention, caregivers, midwives, or the HIV positive -- inhabit and reconfigure our contemporary painscape, offering a new approach to the puzzle of pain.