Pain: The science and culture of why we hurt

Given the … multidisciplinary philosophy [of The Ninth World Congress of the International Association for the Study of Pain], I was surprised by the absence of alternative pain approaches — the whole spectrum of cranial-sacral massage [sic], healing-touch therapy, and other hands-on skills that are a lifeline to many people with chronic pain. Alternative therapie are hard to evaluate, but that’s no reason not to explore them.