Pain and Pleasure: A Study of Bodily Feelings

Thomas Szasz

Syracuse University Press, 1988 - Psychology - 303 pages

In this work Dr. Szasz dispels popular and scientific confusion about what pain and pleasure actually are. Demonstrating the doubtful value of such distinctions as "real" and Imagined" pain, or "physical" and "intellectual" pleasure, he analyses the basic concepts-psychological, philosophical, and sociological-involved in bodily feelings and discusses how these feelings are communicated. Some of the subjects discussed in Pain and Pleasure include: self-mutilation, sexual satisfaction, "hysterical anesthesia," false pregnancy, laughter, homosexuality, and dream analysis.

What people are saying

User Review -

Amazing insights regarding the convergences of feelings.....and how we have chosen to deal with them as humans, humanity, physical, psychological, subjective, objective, social, personal, community and human rights. Worth reading at least twice.

Contents

• Preface 1988: vii
• Pain in a New Perspective 1975: xvii
• Preface to the First Edition: lv
• Acknowledgments: lxi
• of Physics and of Psychology: 14
• Analysis of Concepts and Clarification: 34
• The Psychology of Pain: 49
• Part III The Psychology of Bodily: 105
• Excerpts from the Literature: 170
• The Psychology of Pleasure: 183
• Pleasure: 222
• Retrospects and Conclusions: 235
• The Complementary Nature of the Psycho: 241
• Sociological Considerations: 247
• Publications on Pain by Thomas S Szasz m d: 257
• Index of Authors: 279
• Index of Subjects: 285

About the author

Thomas Szasz was professor of psychiatry emeritus at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, Washington, DC. He was a big figure in the anti-psychitary movement, a critic of the moral and scientific foundation of psychiatry, and a critic of medicine in society in the social control aspect. His numerous works include The Age of Madness, Ideology and Insanity: Essays on the Psychiatric Dehumanization of Man, and Coercion as Cure: A Critical History of Psychiatry.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Pain and Pleasure: A Study of Bodily Feelings
• Author: Thomas Szasz
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press, 1988
• ISBN: 0815602308, 9780815602309
• Length: 303 pages
• Subjects: Psychology / Cognitive Psychology; Psychology / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition; Psychology / General