Pain - No Redeeming Social Value :: Psychology Essays Research Papers

Pain - No Redeeming Social Value No better person exemplifies the ill than in-hospital patients, trapped against their will by both doctors and physical pain. They experience a variety of negative traits, such as being self-absorbed. An excellent example of a person’s self-absorption occurs in life and death situations. In lifeguard training, one of the first things that is taught was never to directly approach someone who is drowning. When someone is drowning they are panicking, the pain that is inflicted on them in this instance will cause them to do anything, however irrational, in order to save their lives. If a lifeguard attempts to rescue a person who is panicking it is very likely that they will be inadvertently drowned. Another mental affliction is selfishness. When a person is experiencing a large amount of pain, their concern is only for making it go away, unconcerned with its consequences, even of an emotional toll on family. A situation of this type could occur at a child’s birthday party, in which one of the children is hurt. His pain inspires a selfishness that prompts the parents to bring the party to a halt in order to find some sort of relief. Indeed, physical pain does little to ease the mind; rather one becomes more tense and querulous, ready to spark like a wildfire at the slightest chance. There is no better example than the old grouch on the geriatrics ward of a small town, dying from skin cancer. The lesions in his skin continue to grow and multiply, despite all the care given by the hospital staff. This great discomfort only hardened his heart, and he became more and more difficult to please. He often called upon the nurses at odd hours of the day to demand attention. When they did not come to him with whatever he wanted on command, he would throw his bedpan out into the hallway. Neither did he have a problem with defecating all over the room when they could not please him. Yet when the janitors would come in to clean up his mess, he would yell at them as if they were the cause behind all this. Even the doctors would dread their daily confrontations with him where he would blame them for all his discomfort. One can also see that being stuck in the gloomy hospital environment, surrounded by the ill and the dying, does little to help one's impatient nature when cloaked by the searing pain with little if any aid.