Pain through the perspective of art and creativity: insights from the Unmasking Pain project

Abstract

People struggle to tell their story of living with pain and when they do it is articulated in a way that may not be understood, heard or taken seriously. Unmasking Pain is an artist-led project that explored creative approaches to tell stories of life with pain. The project was led by a dance theatre company that specialises in storytelling and emotional experiences for players and audiences. The project involved artists and people living with ongoing pain co-creating activities and environments to curiously explore “oneself”, through imagination and creative expression. This article discusses insights and perspectives emerging from the project. The project revealed the power of art to make-sense of oneself with or without pain, and how art facilitates expression of complex inner experience and personal stories. People described Unmasking Pain as “explorative joy despite pain”, and “a new set of rules” that contrasts with those experienced during clinical encounters. We discuss how art has the potential to improve clinical encounters and promote health and well-being, and whether artist-led activities are an intervention, therapy, or something else. Pain rehabilitation specialists from the project described Unmasking Pain as “freeing-up thinking”, allowing conceptual thought beyond the biopsychosocial model of pain. We conclude that art has the potential to shift people living with pain from “I can't do, I am not willing to do it” to “Perhaps I can, I'll give it a go, I enjoyed”.

Perspectives on the insidious nature of pain metaphor: we literally need to change our metaphors

“…We have used enactive metaphors in artist-led workshops to co-create stories of living with persistent pain via creative movement, resulting in improvements in health, well-being and quality of life ( 103 ). Community-based pain services that connect people living with persistent pain to pain education and community-based activities, such as artist-lead workshops, may provide opportunities not only for the use of enactive metaphors, but also for holistic support of a person's physical, mental, social and environmental needs.…”

Incorporating personal narratives in positive psychology interventions to manage chronic pain

“…People living with persistent pain experience difficulties constructing meaningful explanations for their pain and suffering (26,27). People struggle to articulate their personal pain story in a way that is understood, heard, or taken seriously by others, including health care professionals (28)(29)(30)(31). In clinical consultation, patients are often forced to express pain through assessment tools that collapse the multi-faceted nature of pain into simplified generalisations or into individual, disconnected, items that fragment pain experience (31).…”

“…People struggle to articulate their personal pain story in a way that is understood, heard, or taken seriously by others, including health care professionals (28)(29)(30)(31). In clinical consultation, patients are often forced to express pain through assessment tools that collapse the multi-faceted nature of pain into simplified generalisations or into individual, disconnected, items that fragment pain experience (31). Being unable to express pain through personal narrative results in decontextualise care that is detrimental to health and well-being (32).…”