Various fields will be contributing to the interdisciplinary conference; medicine, history, cultural and social sciences. However, phantom pain serves not only as metaphor for the cultural interpretation of pain and physical materiality but also for a collective suffering stemming from the ideal of wholeness and the ghosts of being different.

Phantom pain is paradoxical: The source of pain seems to be situated outside of the body but at the same time has a physical basis in the nerves.

The conference is aimed at scientists and the general public. It accompanies the exhibition "The (Im)Perfect Human Being: The Right to Imperfection", which is being shown from March 15th to June 2nd, 2002 at the Martin Gropius building in Berlin. The meeting is an extension of a former conference on “Perfection and Imperfection” in Dresden last year.

Academic Board:

• Prof. Dr. Thomas Macho, Kulturwissenschaftliches Seminar, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Rosemarie Garland Thomson, Institute for Women’s Studies, Emory University Atlanta
• Christian Holtorf, Stiftung Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden
• Heike Zirden, Curator of the exhibition „The (Im)Perfect Human Being“, Head of public relations / education , “Aktion Mensch e.V.”, Bonn

Participants:

• Prof. Dr. Tobin Siebers, Director Program in Comparative Literature, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Prof. Dr. Carol Poore, German Studies, Brown University, Providence
• Dr. Mag. Maria Wolf, APART-scholarship holder of the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Innsbruck
• Prof. Dr. Anne Waldschmidt, Social Sciences, Evang. Fachhochschule Nürnberg and many more