Role of Pain Personification in Pain-Related Depression: An Object Relations Perspective

Schattner, Emanuel; Shahar, Golan

doi:10.1521/psyc.2011.74.1.14

Cited by 17 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Indeed, references to being in so much pain ‘you’d think you were dying’ may reflect a perception of pain being so intense that it could only be communication through death itself (Munday et al ., 2020). Such negative personification of pain is a demonstrated predictor of pain‐related distress, depression, and illness intrusiveness (Schattner & Shahar, 2011) and could indicate catastrophic thinking and concerns that warrant additional attention, therefore highlighting targets for future work to examine.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parallel worlds and personified pain: A mixed‐methods analysis of pain metaphor use by women with endometriosis

Bullo

Hearn

2020

British J Health Psychol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objectives. Endometriosis is a long-term condition in which endometrial-like tissue grows outside of the womb, causing intense chronic pain. Previous work has demonstrated the physical and emotional impact on women who live with endometriosis, and metaphors can play an influential role in communicating the experience of pain, but there exists little understanding of the role and impact of such language for women with endometriosis. Design. A qualitative, semi-structured interview design. Methods. Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) were utilized in a mixed-methods study to examine the prevalence, types, and meaning of metaphors and metaphor use as a health communication strategy. Twenty-one women aged between 23 and 53 years (mean age 36.1 years) with endometriosis took part in audio-recorded interviews. Results. The women reported experiencing symptoms for an average of 11 years before receiving a formal diagnosis of endometriosis, and the mean age of diagnosis was 27.6 years. Seven distinct conceptual metaphors were identified in 221 metaphorical expressions used across all participants, with most common ones referring to pain as physical properties of elements such as temperature and pressure, physical damage, and an external attacker. IPA revealed three themes pertaining to the feeling of vulnerability and helplessness, pain being incomprehensible, and a drive to manage and conceal pain simultaneously. Conclusions. This study demonstrates the power of language in facilitating understanding and empathy in the listener, alongside the challenge of communicating endometriosis pain to others. Imagery-based techniques may assist in adaptation to, interpretation, and acceptance of pain to reduce pain-related distress. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Endometriosis is a debilitating gynaecological condition causing incapacitating pain that is reportedly difficult to describe. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parallel worlds and personified pain: A mixed‐methods analysis of pain metaphor use by women with endometriosis

Bullo

Hearn

2020

British J Health Psychol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Stemming from these understandings, and combined with the illness personification theory (Schattner et al, 2008;Shahar & Lerman, 2013), a new research arena has emerged, which sheds light on the ways in which individuals who experienced trauma personify their bodily signals. According to the Illness Personification theory, first concieved by Shahar and colleagues (Schattner et al, 2008;Schattner & Shahar, 2011;Shahar & Lerman, 2013), individuals tend to ascribe humanlike characteristics to illness-related symptoms in a way that is relevant to the self (Shahar & Lerman, 2013). As such, individuals tend to develop a sort of "relationship" with their chronic medical condition, reflecting the narrative in which the self interacts with the illness (Schattner & Shahar, 2011;Shahar & Lerman, Tsur NP2519 4 Journal of Interpersonal Violence 00(0)…”

Section: Chronic Pain Personificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic Pain Personification Following Child Abuse: The Imprinted Experience of Child Abuse in Later Chronic Pain

Tsur

2020

J Interpers Violence

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Child abuse has been shown to increase the risk for chronic pain. The illness personification theory implies that individuals tend to ascribe humanlike characteristics to chronic pain, and that this personification is embedded in the way they cope with their chronic condition. Recent findings demonstrate that individuals who experienced interpersonal violence tend to personify chronic pain in a way that resonates with past abusive experience. Although findings prevail to the link between trauma and the experience of the body, the personification of chronic pain among individuals who experienced child abuse has not been examined before. This article includes two studies that tested whether child abuse is implicated in abusive chronic pain personification in a young adult female sample (Study 1) and among females who experienced child abuse (Study 2). In both studies, self-report measures of child abuse, posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms, complex posttraumatic symptoms (disturbances of self-organization [DSO]), and abusive chronic pain personification were administered. Structural equation modeling was utilized to assess the hypotheses. The findings of the two studies showed a significant association between child abuse and pain personification. Whereas PTS symptoms did not mediate this link (Study 1), DSO symptoms mediated this association (Study 2). The findings of these studies support the understanding that the experience of interpersonal violence is engraved in the experience of the body, as reflected in abusive chronic pain personification. Disturbances in self-organization seem to underlie this process, thus pertaining to the link between the experience of the body, self, and interpersonal trauma.

show abstract

“…Personification is defined as a tendency to mentalize-either positively or negatively-inanimate objects, often due to the need to reduce uncertainty and acquire "control" of external surroundings (Epley et al, 2008;Waytz et al, 2010). Individuals display high levels of personification when encountering acute and chronic stressors such as natural disasters or chronic illness (Jung et al, 2014;Lerman and Shahar, 2013;Schattner and Shahar, 2011). In the context of mass vaccination, personifying the government agency may entail experiencing this agency either as caring and nurturing or-alternatively-as deficient, or even as having malicious intent.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents’ malevolent personification of mass vaccination solidifies vaccine hesitancy

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Parental hesitancy to vaccinate their children derails the success of mass vaccination campaigns. We examined the effect of parents’ personification of the vaccinating agency on vaccine hesitancy (i.e. negative or positive mind change) in 555 parents in a mass wild poliovirus vaccination campaign. Parents were assessed before and after the campaign on attitudes toward vaccination and the vaccinating agency (“The Israeli MoH is caring” vs “hysteric”). Positive mind change was predicted by a gender and malevolent personification. A negative mind change was predicted by parental anxiety. We conclude that parental hesitancy is influenced by parents’ attachment to the vaccinating agency.

show abstract

Role of Pain Personification in Pain-Related Depression: An Object Relations Perspective

Cited by 17 publications

References 3 publications

Parallel worlds and personified pain: A mixed‐methods analysis of pain metaphor use by women with endometriosis

Parallel worlds and personified pain: A mixed‐methods analysis of pain metaphor use by women with endometriosis

Chronic Pain Personification Following Child Abuse: The Imprinted Experience of Child Abuse in Later Chronic Pain

Parents’ malevolent personification of mass vaccination solidifies vaccine hesitancy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About