Irrational Suffering – An Impact of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy on the Depression Level and the Perception of Pain in Cancer Patients

Abstract

International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) provides the definition of pain according to which pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage (cf. Witte & Stein, 2010). Therefore pain is a phenomenon which extends beyond the somatosensory dimension and its perception is determined by a number of factors, among which mental factors deserve special attention as they can be modified by psychological interventions. Pain is not always confined to a physical sensation. In the following paper the term ‘pain’ is reserved for somatic pain. However, the experience of such pain might become a threat to the integrity of the self, which is accompanied by despair. The sensations of this kind will be described as ‘suffering’.