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Pain: The science and culture of why we hurt

record updated
item type
a page in a book
author
Marni Jackson
publisher
Random House
year
2003
page
p. 348 (Trade paperback edition)
 
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The full quote/excerpt

If Jeff Mogil and Ron Melzack are right [about genetics and pain], fifty years from now, generic Tylenol tablets will seem as quaint to us as a bottle of sarsaparilla tonic. Instead, we’ll take our genotype ID bracely to the local genopharmacologist to order some bespoke pharmaceuticals. Or we may rise at four A.M. to meditate on the part of our nature that is painful and feel better for it. Along with social insurance, we’ll carry geno-cards that list our predispositions: photosensitivity, osteoporosis, and poor response to codeine.

Addiction might be redefined not as a character flaw but as a “biochemical deficit management.” Our emotional habits will become an accepted factor of good health, along with slogans like “Heartache can be harmful to your unborn children.”

Shortened version of the quote

If Jeff Mogil and Ron Melzack are right [about genetics and pain], fifty years from now, generic Tylenol tablets will seem as quaint to us as a bottle of sarsaparilla tonic. Instead, we’ll take our genotype ID bracvly to the local genopharmacologist to order some bespoke pharmaceuticals. Or we may rise at four A.M. to meditate on the part of our nature that is painful and feel better for it. Along with social insurance, we’ll carry geno-cards that list our predispositions: photosensitivity, osteoporosis, and poor response to codeine. Addiction might be redefined not as a character flaw but as a “biochemical deficit management.” Our emotional habits will become an accepted factor of good health, along with slogans like “Heartache can be harmful to your unborn children.”

Image of the cover of the book “Pain: The science and culture of why we hurts