2023-09-30 12:42:20
by Agnese Collino
Sunday 1 October at 3pm The BergamoScienza Festival, an appointment with the journalist Roberta Fulci to discover the secrets of pain, to investigate the meaning of one of the most complex sensations in our lives
Imagine being born incapable of feeling pain. Physical pain related for example to a burn or fracture, or emotional pain such as that due to bereavement. These are rare conditions, but possible. Many may be convinced that our lives would be better, but would they really be? What is the meaning of pain? And how to explain it to those who will never be able to experience it?
These and other questions will be at the center of the appointment «Evil said» at the BergamoScienza Festival, Sunday 1 October at 3pm. The event takes its name from the title of the new book, published by Codice Edizioni, by Roberta Fulci: mathematician, editor and presenter of Radio3Scienza, at BergamoScienza she will share her reflections on the theme of pain, developed during a journey that led her to question the protagonists of research – scientific, but also philosophical and historical – on this topic.
A complex topic to address and even study (just think of the difficulties that still exist today in understanding how to measure pain), as well as elusive in its definition, as Fulci explains in his essay. A complexity that also emerges from the many questions that arise around this topic: why do those who have suffered an amputation sometimes feel pain in the missing limb (the famous phenomenon of the phantom limb)? How is it possible that many people are able to relieve even severe pain thanks to “placebo” preparations, containing nothing more than water and sugar? Are animals capable of feeling pain like us? And why is an act as important for the continuation of our species as giving birth also one of the most painful events?
Roberta Fulci will lead the public (and readers) to discover the known mechanisms – and those still under study – behind the ability to feel pain, the ways in which our body receives and processes a painful stimulus, but also the reasons for where feeling pain should represent an evolutionary advantage. And again, how the perception of pain changes depending on the geographical and historical context, even though we asked ourselves many fundamental questions about pain centuries ago just like today.
A courageous analysis of a topic that we instinctively tend to shy away from, but which in one way or another concerns us all. A reflection that can help us define what pain is for each of us, because ultimately finding the words to talk about it helps to give shape – and meaning – to our experience.
September 30, 2023 (modified September 30, 2023 | 12:41)
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