Can pain be learned? A major update
If Pavlov’s dogs can learn to salivate when a bell rings, can people learn to feel pain when they see their office chairs? We care about this because what is learned might also be un-learned.
But … is it learned?
Practically everyone believes that pain can be learned, like a bad habit, but science is not so sure.
Almost exactly a year ago, I did a bunch of work on this topic, and I foolishly thought that I was done. I reckoned my full article on conditioned pain was in good shape, and a revision wasn’t even on my to-do list. But somehow I ended up spending most of the last week on it! I shoved aside all my known priorities for this out-of-nowhere project.
What started with just a bit of tidying — I was preparing for an interview about the role of the mind in pain — blew-up into a full-blown re-write! Sheesh. “Well that escalated quickly.”
Anyone can read all the new content right now. Members get an all-new half-hour audio version of it. Some highlights from the revision include:
- Six reasons why people think learned pain is plausible.
- Many new clarifications, digressions, and nerdy footnotes.
- A much more complete and nuanced review of the evidence.
I am always amazed how deep these rabbit holes go. After grappling with the topic for the last several days, now I have a list of notes of additional improvements I’d like to make. This work lengthened my to-do list rather than shortening it! If you have suggestions or questions, please let me know.
Just a little classical conditioning humour. I laughed on cue.