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Our discussion of pain brought up some interesting and important points for me.

1) Pain still seems somewhat like a mystery- although we have theories and have mapped pain pathways and found neurons responsible for creating the pain sensation, it still seems like there is more going on that we just don't know about, and maybe we can't know about it- I enjoyed the "beetle in the box" analogy of pain- we can never fully know about another's pain- they can characterize it for us, but ultimately we can't completely know another's pain- only our own pain.  

2) I thought the definition of pain was interesting because it included both a "sensory" and "emotional" component- I would be interested to find out more about what this "emotional" component is made up of and possibly how our emotions can influence our pain, for better or for worse.

3) I think the idea of the "context" in which you experience pain is an interesting one.  I definitely believe where you are when you are in pain and what you are doing can have a significant impact on the pain you feel.  In class, the example of getting a bullet wound on the battle field versus getting a bullet wound sitting in your house.  I think both contexts will influence the pain in different ways.  We should also consider how context can help and influence our treatment of pain.

4) I also enjoyed our discussion of alternative treatments of pain- such as acupuncture.  I have personally had acupuncture and the philosophy of how it works was described much differently to me- I received  much more scientific explanation (no ying or yang)- I was told that for my tightened muscles, the needle is inserted into the knots and tight muscles, then the muscles, tighten around the needle, and when the needle is removed, the muscle in turn relaxes- creating more relaxed muscles, which takes away any muscular-derived pain.  I personally connect more with this explanation- it just makes more concrete, logical sense to me.  But, no matter what the explanation is for how acupuncture works- I think acupuncture has proved successful for treating the pain of many individuals.