Can chronic muscular pain be understood?

Abstract

Chronic muscular pain is often regarded as incomprehensible or indefinable when the doctor "can't find anything" on examination. However, the physiotherapist often detects physical signs in these patients: changes in posture, holding breath, tense and hard musculature, and poor balance. The findings are dependent on what is being sought. The view of the body as ambiguous, as something a person has and is, can shed light on the way life has left its traces in the body, such as changes in posture and poor balance. In this article it will be argued that combining a physiotherapeutic, a phenomenological, and a biological perspective can make chronic muscular pain more comprehensible. Chronic muscular pain can be perceived not as a sign representing a symbol of underlying factors but rather as a sign understood as an expression of the bodily state. © 2005 Taylor & Francis.