The Philosophy of Pain

Vikky Leaney says pain is a problem even (or especially) when we can't see it.

- Vikky Leaney

Pain is one of the most paradoxical aspects of human experience: deeply personal, yet profoundly elusive; intangible, yet undeniably real to those who feel it. For people living with fibromyalgia — a chronic condition marked by widespread pain, fatigue, and cognitive difficulties — this paradox becomes an inescapable reality. Fibromyalgia is often referred to as an ‘invisible illness’ because its symptoms lack visible signs or conventional markers that medical science can easily detect. This invisibility leads to a significant struggle for validation for sufferers, both socially and medically. Yet the challenges of fibromyalgia reach beyond personal experience, to raise philosophical questions that probe the nature of pain, the limits of perception, and the ethical dimensions of empathy. This article considers these issues, drawing from phenomenology, ethics, and the philosophy of mind, to explore how invisible illnesses like fibromyalgia challenge our assumptions about pain and our responsibilities towards others. By examining the experience of fibromyalgia sufferers, we can gain insights into how society perceives and validates suffering (or doesn’t) — and how our ethical obligations might require us to believe in what we cannot see.

Pain, Perception & the Body: A Phenomenological Perspective

For people with fibromyalgia, pain is a constant, all-encompassing presence that radiates throughout muscles and joints, affecting daily life in countless ways. This makes fibromyalgia not just a physical experience but an existential one — one that forces sufferers to confront their own bodies as sources of unending discomfort and frustration.