On Suffering

 On Wednesday I attend a meeting for mental health social workers.  The speaker was Philip Archard, a colleague from CAMHS.  Philip wrote his PhD thesis on the study of social worker's attitudes and coping mechanisms when faced with the suffering they saw in lives of the parents and carers they worked with.  Philip's study demonstrated that although the social worker's in the main expressed left-wing views of the causality of suffering, the way they managed their own discomfort was to see the parents as somehow complicate with their own suffering.  Philip explained that by using a psychodynamic model of interpretation, it could be argued that this thought pattern protected the social workers from their own experience of trauma and helplessness.

It struck me that this was what was happening during the recent fuel crisis where government voices described the crisis as brought on by 'panic buying'.  They then spoke of mobilised the army, which of course was an action that was likely to counteract their calls for 'calm down'.  For most, being without a car is of little consequence, but for many it could be a matter of life and death.  Many disabled and elderly people are quietly served by an army of carers who use cars to reach them.  When petrol is not available for these people, panic is entirely appropriate.  

The task of social care and health is to reduce suffering.  We can define suffering as the psychic equivalent of pain.  

Reference

Iain Wilkinson (2005) Suffering: A Sociological Introduction