Related post- http://ub-untu.blogspot.in/2012/08/the-action-pleasure.html
For
the past few weeks, the excruciating pain in my shoulder (reminiscent
of a free fall from a climbing incident) has made me almost oblivious
to the hollow echo of Ramadan in my belly. Yelping and passing
through the stages of grief ( denial, anger, bargain, acceptance) of
this ignoble hurting, I came to think of what Pain really means.
Refute
or agree, one cannot ignore the magnetism of Freud. Freud opined that
human nature as we know it centres around the pleasure principle. In
theory this simply means one always try to achieve pleasure, and the
denial of it raises the ego principle. Keeping it simple my
understanding of it is pleasure and pain (action-reaction) are very
poignant aspects of life and our gratification or denial of it
branches to a whole bunch of psychoanalytical studies which is
another discussion altogether.
An
article the other day discussed what the world would be like without
pain and how efficient we could be and how perfectly we could
function if only our lives would be devoid of the presence of pain.
As fascinating as this concept might be, pain is who we are. It
exists as a part of us. We hurt because we are alive. Who heard of a
corpse flinching? We are a fascinating specie we are. We do not
appreciate things unless we have any sort of fear of them. The pain
is a physical realisation of existence. There is nothing like good
pain or bad, our interpreting of it may give it a positive or a
negative meaning.
During
Moharram ( the Islamic Shiite remembrance of Prophet Ali) men, from
the youngest to the oldest flog themselves with sharp blades in
public view and claim that they do not feel any pain. Christian
monks inflict self harm to atone for their sins, and wear coarse
clothing to further aggravate the injuries so as not to forget the
penance. Some people have a tendency to cut themselves to relieve
their pain, some have a tendency to stuff themselves silly, thus
abusing their body to relieve and inflict pain. What these factors
and many more have in common is the denial of pleasure, resulting in
ensuing pain and thus finding an outlet to relieve that pain, as it
can be physically and morally soul crushing. What I do fancy about
the Freudian approach to pleasure and pain is the objectivity of it.
He doesn't state what is good and bad pain, society, our principles, the affect of it on our lives, defines and demarcates the level of
guilt associated with it. Its all well and good to state what
expression of pain is acceptable and what isn't, but what definition
can be given to pain resulted from a broken heart, that it almost
feels like one's breath is being stifled beneath a heavy boulder? It
has been scientifically proven that the physical manifestation of
emotional pain can be as devastating to the body as any physical
injury.
Browsing
through BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18713585)
I recently came to learn about Congenital Analgesia and how two
brothers suffered from it. The younger one not being able deal with
the lifelong agony of feeling no pain committed suicide. The older
one, still alive and having a family faces the pain of slow death
each day, and yet cannot feel any physical manifestation of it.
We
should thank our creator for allowing us the ability to feel the
agonies of life, to be able to grieve over it and move on. What a
life must these brothers lead that they can never really move on.
Even when their body collapses to a point of no return, they still
cannot feel it. The pity.
The
point of this blog is not to say that we ought to only experience
pain or to justify the validity of sadomasochism, the point is to
merely state that pain is a part of who we are. It exists like the
air we breathe. We can go to any lengths to explain or understand it,
but in the end its tangible reality is irrefutable, and we need it to
feel that we are alive. We exist.
Having
discussed the reaction methinks its only logical that the following
blog ought to be about the action- Pleasure.
I have gone through many pains some have abated but some are still alive and reminds me the past.
ReplyDeleteI can better say in Urdu:
"ek do zakhm nahin sara badan hai chhalni
dard pareshan hai nikle to kahan se nikle"
These painful scars you have are like war scars, reminiscent of the things you have been through and survived. You are a survivor nana and I am proud of you..x
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