ABSTRACT
ACROSS CULTURES AND across time pain is one of the most basic human experiences. The meaning of pain is embedded in the underlying beliefs of the culture in which it is situated. In contemporary Western society pain is commonly viewed in a dichotomised way, as either physical or mental. From this viewpoint physical pain is seen as accompanying a broken arm and mental pain a broken heart. Pain is often further classified as either acute or chronic, and chronic pain as either malignant or non-malignant in origin. The focus of the present study is on chronic pain of non-malignant origin. Such pain often has no obvious physiological cause and no cure. Unlike acute pain which is short-lived and functional, chronic pain is unrelenting, persisting long after it can serve any useful function (Melzack & Wall 1988).
