This multi-disciplinary workshop draws together historians, medical ethicists, clinicians, policymakers, epidemiologists, anthropologists, sociologists, and scholars from other fields of the medical humanities and social sciences to discuss the problem of pain. The discussion will address the historical evolution of pain medicine in relation to public policy controversies (from addiction to end-of-life care), and in relation to evolving debates about patient credibility, ethnic identity, religion, the cultures of science and health care, as well as the cultural meaning of pain. The papers (many of them already published) will be pre-circulated and not formally presented. The conference focuses on discussion, commentary, and debate.

Organizers, Keith Wailoo and Stephen Pemberton

Sponsors include the James S. McDonnell Foundation; Rutgers University’s Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research; Rutgers University Department of History; and the History Department’s Graduate Program in Technology, the Environment, and Health.

Friday, June 7, 2002
Morning Session: 9:45 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Panel I. At a Crossroads?: Pain and Policy in the 1990’s

“Pain Management, Controlled Substances, and State Medical Board Policy: A Decade of Change” David Joranson (Pain and Policy Studies Group, University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center)

“Moral Conundrums in the Courtroom: Reflections on a Decade in the Culture of Pain” Ben Rich (Bioethics, University of California, Davis School of Medicine)

Commentary:
Allan Horwitz (Sociology / Institute for Health, Rutgers University)
Keith Wailoo (History / Institute for Health, Rutgers University)

Friday, June 7, 2002
Afternoon Session: 2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Panel II. Do They Feel It Like We Do?: Race Relations, Ethnicity, and the Recognition of Pain

“Pain Assessment and Ethnicity / Influence of Ethnicity on Emergency Department Pain Management” Knox Todd (Emergency Medicine / Public Health, Emory University)

“Waist-ache, Coolness, and Composure: Signposts for a History of Pain in Botswana” Julie Livingston (History, New Jersey Institute of Technology / Rutgers University)

“Pain and Policy at the Crossroads of Managed Care” Keith Wailoo (History / Institute for Health, Rutgers University)

Commentary:
Mark Schlesinger (Political Science / Public Health, Yale University; Institute for Health, Rutgers University)

Saturday, June 8, 2002
Morning Session: 9 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

Panel III. Locating Pain: Saints, Scientists, and the Psyche

“The Animated Pain of the Body” Esther Cohen (History, Hebrew University)

“Assimilation and Psychic Pain: Construction of an American Cultural Category” Andrew Heinze (History / Judaic Studies, University of San Francisco)

“Planning and Serendipity in the Search for a Nonaddicting Opiate Analgesic” Caroline Acker (History, Carnegie Mellon University)

Commentary:
Philip Pauly (History, Rutgers University)
Stephen Pemberton (History / Institute for Health, Rutgers University)

Saturday, June 8, 2002
Afternoon Session: 2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Panel IV. Crisis and Credibility: Making Sense of the Patient in Pain

“Me/Not Me: Self, Language, and Pain” Jean Jackson (Anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

“Putting Pain to Paper: Endometriosis and the Documentation of Suffering” Emma Whelan (Sociologist / Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University)

Commentary:
Philip Scranton (History, Rutgers University / Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis)
Julie Livingston (History, New Jersey Institute of Technology / Rutgers University)

All are welcome to attend. Those wishing to attend must register in order to participate and receive the pre-circulated papers. Registration forms, a full schedule, and additional information about the conference can be obtained at the website for Rutgers University’s Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research (see http://www.ihhcpar.rutgers.edu).

This conference is third in a series sponsored by the James S. McDonnell Foundation. Past events include: “Science, Medicine, and the Cultural Transformation of Cancer” (University of North Carolina, Spring 1999) and “The Politics of ‘Racial Health’: Myths, Maladies, and the History of Policy” (Rutgers University, Fall 2001).