Pain is one of the emotions inherent in our existence, since we are born we are exposed to the inconsistency that life, by itself, means and to the frustration that results from the dissatisfaction of our desires, so that we know how to face pain and move. It is essential to evolve into a degree of suffering that we can endure.
First, it is essential to distinguish between pain, sadness and melancholy; this distinction is fundamental because often, in a familiar language, these words are used in the same way, but are not synonymous.
- “Sadness is a set of states in which psychic pain is triggered by the importance that a given situation has for the subject.
- ” – Hugo Bleichmar-.
Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, proposes an important distinction between these concepts, because while they are similar, or at least the collective imaginary equals them, they are different. In his masterpiece “Luto e Melancolia”, he tries to establish the points where the two concepts differ.
Knowing how to manage pain is the key to moving forward
So, literally, Freud affirms that “mourning is the reaction to the loss of a loved one or to an abstraction that takes its place, as an ideal, freedom, etc. With the same influences, melancholy is observed in many people instead of cry?” .
Freud explains that bereavement is a condition that does not need to be pathological and that is suffered by the subject who has lost the object he loved, however, it is a way of feeling that responds to absolutely normal parameters, while melancholy is more related to pathological.
Both mood processes have similar characteristics, with the exception of a fundamental point: in both states there is a disinterest in the outside world and a lack of propensity to invest in a new object of love.
However, in melancholy, an alteration of the feeling of pain appears, in addition to the harassment of the ego, which does not occur during a normal duel.
Emotional life is directly related to the human psyche and therefore directly or indirectly affects physical or biological well-being. In general, today’s society, and the individual in particular, underestimate the importance of emotions.
When a person develops a symptom, such as insomnia or depression, he wants it to magically disappear and use life-solving medications, however, it is very difficult for the symptom to be absent, at least definitively, if complete psychoanalytic work is not performed. Outside.
Medicine, specifically psychiatry, reinforces the theory of stimulus-response behavior to combat any type of symptoms, the idea is that with proper medication any patient can reintegrate into their daily routine, since the symptom disappears or decreases significantly, at least for a while. While.
However, in many cases, medications are just a carpet that covers the symptom, the manifestation, leaving the final cause of the disease latent.
Thus, when the drug is removed, it reappears, and even if the drug is maintained, it can take other forms to become visible, harming the quality of life of the person.
Dealing with pain helps us get to know each other
Certainly, the symptom is an informative element that something bad happens in the subject’s psychic life, in this way silencing his voice will only lose information about what is happening and it will be more difficult to intervene in it. good clinical evaluation is so important before starting any type of intervention.
In this way, psychotherapy offers us the opportunity to establish new parameters to look at the world from a new perspective, a new perspective that involves less pain and more satisfaction or realization.
Let us think that all our suffering has an important degree of subjectivity, so it is the person who, in the latter case, knows what really hurts him; on the other hand, through his account, the psychologist will be able to understand what the dissatisfied desire represents as the source of his discomfort.