Pain as an assault on the self: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the psychological impact of chronic benign low back pain

Smith, Jonathan A.; Osborn, Mike

doi:10.1080/14768320600941756

Cited by 412 publications

(417 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Indeed there is already a corpus of research employing IPA to examine pain. Overall this work demonstrates the existence of complex sets of relationships between an individual's pain, their body, their social context, and their concept of self (for example, Snelgrove & Liossi, 2009;Smith & Osborn, 2007). Smith & Osborn demonstrate how chronic benign low back pain takes a significant psychological toll on participants' identity.…”

Section: Pictorial Representations Of Chronic Painmentioning

confidence: 78%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Painting pain: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of representations of living with chronic pain.

Kirkham¹,

Smith²,

Havsteen-Franklin³

2015

Health Psychology

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Objective: This study examines patients' pictorial representations of their chronic pain, alongside their accounts of those images, in order to help our understanding of their lived experience of the condition. Method:The sample comprises seven women in middle adulthood from southern England. They began by drawing what their pain felt like and were then interviewed about their portrayals. The interviews were analyzed with interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results:The participants produce strong, vivid, abstract pictures. In many of the pictures, the pain is objectified as punitive and sinister. This is enhanced through the use of stark colours of red and black. Paintings also often have a temporal element, showing either the movement from self before pain to self since the pain had started, or pointing to aspirations for the possible relief of pain in the future. The analysis of the images is grounded in the participants' accounts of them. Conclusion:The images and accounts provide a powerful insight into the internal world of the pain sufferer and the subjective experience of chronic pain. We link this work to other attempts to represent patients' pain and point to the particular contribution our work makes. We make some suggestions for subsequent research following on from what is presented here and we also argue that the methodology outlined in the paper offers considerable potential for research on other health conditions. We know of no previously published IPA work on pain which elicits artwork from participants but it was done as part of an IPA study on addiction (Shinebourne & Smith, 2011). The aim of this study is to examine how patients represent their pain pictorially, how they describe those pictures and how they then use them as a springboard for further reflection on their pain experience. MethodThe first author is a health/counselling psychologist, with five years' post qualification experience delivering pain management programmes. The second author is an academic psychologist with extensive experience of qualitative research, including work on living with chronic pain. The third author is an art therapist in the National Health Service. ParticipantsIPA works with small purposive homogeneous samples. This allows for the microanalysis of psychological convergence and divergence in what is a relatively homogeneous group, in terms of obvious demographic and other variables. Our sample comprised seven White-British women in middle adulthood (aged 36-52) recently referred to a community PICTORIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF CHRONIC PAIN 6 pain management service in southern England. Almost all participants presented with complex cases and had multiple sources of pain. On average they had had pain for 12 years, and all had had it for at least 6 years. Most had a history of unsuccessful medical investigations. Only one, Fran, had prior exposure to any 'pain self-management' approaches before attending this pain management clinic. See Table 1 for participant details. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^...

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Section: Pictorial Representations Of Chronic Painmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Hellstrom (2001) and Smith and Osborn (2007). In Smith and Osborn's paper, pain is seen as a toxic threat to the established sense of self.…”

Section: Yes Because You Know Everybody Needs Sunshine In Their Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Painting pain: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of representations of living with chronic pain.

Kirkham¹,

Smith²,

Havsteen-Franklin³

2015

Health Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The ranges of agreement for CASP and JBIQ rank were 52-75% and 29-82% respectively. The team members agreed that five studies were key, [28][29][30][31][32] one team member graded a further five as key, [33][34][35][36][37] and the other graded a further seven as key. [38][39][40][41][42][43][44] Full details of the appraisal scoring are also available from the authors.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Forty-nine papers (37 studies) explored chronic MSK pain. [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]39,40,43,48, Twentyeight papers (23 studies) focused primarily on fibromyalgia (FM). 28,38,41,42, Studies were included from a range of countries: Iceland (1); Northern Ireland (1); Switzerland (1); Finland (2); the Netherlands (2); New Zealand (2); Australia (3); Canada (4); Norway (8); the US (8); Sweden (19); and the UK (26).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%