ABSTRACT
In Reimagining Global Health, Farmer et al. called for social theory to enrich the action orientation of the health sciences. They argue that theoretical work can inform health services research and training, including diverse populations’ dying processes. Palliative care would benefit from incorporating the humanities and social sciences to complement the biological aspects of dying processes, dominated by medical science. This chapter proposes three socio-anthropological arguments to be inbuilt into palliative care. First, pain is a biological condition and a social intersubjective relation. Saunders reimagined and reconceptualised this complexity as ‘total pain’.
