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Images as catalysts for meaning-making in medical pain encounters: a multidisciplinary analysis

Padfield, D; Omand, H; Semino, E; Williams, ACDC; Zakrzewska, JM (2018) Images as catalysts for meaning-making in medical pain encounters: a multidisciplinary analysis. Medical Humanities, 44 (2). pp. 74-81. ISSN 1468-215X https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2017-011415
SGUL Authors: Padfield, Deborah Gay

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Abstract

The challenge for those treating or witnessing pain is to find a way of crossing the chasm of meaning between them and the person living with pain. This paper proposes that images can strengthen agency in the person with pain, particularly but not only in the clinical setting, and can create a shared space within which to negotiate meaning. It draws on multidisciplinary analyses of unique material resulting from two fine art/medical collaborations in London, UK, in which the invisible experience of pain was made visible in the form of co-created photographic images, which were then made available to other patients as a resource to use in specialist consultations. In parallel with the pain encounters it describes, the paper weaves together the insights of specialists from a range of disciplines whose methodologies and priorities sometimes conflict and sometimes intersect to make sense of each other’s findings. A short section of video footage where images were used in a pain consultation is examined in fine detail from the perspective of each discipline. The analysis shows how the images function as ‘transactional objects’ and how their use coincides with an increase in the amount of talk and emotional disclosure on the part of the patient and greater non-verbal affiliative behaviour on the part of the doctor. These findings are interpreted from the different disciplinary perspectives, to build a complex picture of the multifaceted, contradictory and paradoxical nature of pain experience, the drive to communicate it and the potential role of visual images in clinical settings.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Keywords: General Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, 1199 Other Medical And Health Sciences, 2201 Applied Ethics, 2202 History And Philosophy Of Specific Fields
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Institute of Medical & Biomedical Education (IMBE)
Journal or Publication Title: Medical Humanities
ISSN: 1468-215X
Dates:
DateEvent
June 2018Published
12 June 2018Published Online
1 May 2018Accepted
Publisher License: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
Projects:
Project IDFunderFunder ID
UNSPECIFIEDNational Institute for Health Researchhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000272
UNSPECIFIEDUniversity College Londonhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000765
UNSPECIFIEDArts Council Englandhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000284
UNSPECIFIEDFriends of University College Hospitals TrustUNSPECIFIED
UNSPECIFIEDArts and Humanities Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000267
ES/K002155/1Economic and Social Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000269
ES/R008906/1Economic and Social Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000269
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/110070
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2017-011415

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