TABLE 4.

Elements of a teaching plan in pain and the humanities (four sessions of 2 h each)

Philosophy	Fine arts	Literature	Drama
Team-based learning about philosophy dividing students into four philosophic schools: Aristotelian, Stoic, Epicurean and Utilitarian	Student presentations of selected artworks: Kahlo, Bosch, Caravaggio, Dix and others. Leads to close observation	Poetry: Kahlil Gibran’s ‘On Pain’, and a discussion of the self-imposed nature of pain (or not), and differences due to culture	Movie excerpt: First 11 min of ‘Glory’ starring Broderick as a lightly wounded soldier observing unanesthetized leg amputation
Students work to answer detailed questions on how their philosophic school conceives of pain and then solve a challenge question of clinical management from their school’s perspective	Guided observations and reflections on the evidence of pain exhibited in selected fine art works. Discussion of neurobiology controlling pain behaviour and what makes pain ‘believable’	Prose: Contrast Stephen King’s pain narrative ‘On Impact’ to that of Doris Lessing’s childbirth narrative in ‘A Proper Marriage’	Dramatic reading of John Milton’s ‘Samson agonists’. Samson is a man with many kinds of emotional degradation but little physical pain: important contrasts to physical pain here
Lecture presentation of philosophic perspectives holds the promise of great breadth but is not interesting to all students	Crucifixion scenes offer a longitudinal and multicultural series of pain images but are heavily laden with potent cultural messages	Poetry alternative: Haiku of Basho and Issa has imagery of winter, dry bones, snails crying in the frying pan, a worm eating a chestnut	Role play where students adopt the roles of patients with specific pain-illness or the role of interns; prompts awareness of pain in diagnosis