In Constructing Pain: Historical, Psychological, and Critical Perspectives, Kugelmann artfully weaves together multiple disciplines—history, literature, medicine, psychology, and social narratives from his research—to broaden the contemporary conceptualization of pain. The account is divided into two parts. In part one, Kugelmann identifies sociocultural forces that he feels shaped collective understandings of pain in the 19th and 20th centuries. By drawing evidence from a rich variety of sources including etymology, historical events, poetry, and literature, Kugelmann articulates how perspectives about the significance and transience of pain have evolved with the times. Although Kugelmann attempts to thoroughly capture social evaluations of pain through this approach, the bulk of perspectives gathered are representative of only a small sector of society—namely, of academic circles. While the views of prominent figures such as Descartes, Bentham, and Henry Rutgers Marshall offer valuable insight about past beliefs, including voices of non-academicians and of people outside of the western world would provide a fuller and more well-rounded account of the understandings of pain.
In part two of the text, Kugelmann establishes the importance of an interdisciplinary construction of pain by exploring the subjective experiences of individuals gathered from his own research. Although these narratives provide compelling insight into individual experiences with pain, in light of how personal each experience is, Kugelmann’s methods of extracting meaning from these narratives to form generalizable conclusions about social evaluations of pain is somewhat questionable and not thoroughly convincing.
Additionally, although Kugelmann’s progression of ideas demonstrate profound thoughtfulness and reasoning, his writing may be less accessible to clinicians with limited background in psychology. At times, the jargon and prose, to some degree, detracted from the meaningful arguments presented. Nevertheless, the insights that Kugelmann presents in this book would be valuable for health care team members to gain an understanding and appreciation of the ever-evolving, polymorphous nature of pain.