Episode 135 | Dr. Kai Karos, PhD: Pain In A Social Context

If you follow this show for some time, you know that one of the aims of this show is to help reconceptualize pain from a biomedical perspective and increase the awareness of a biopsychosocial approach to pain care. Chronic pain has long been recognized as an experience that can threaten your need for safety, both physically and psychologically, but what about feeling safe from a social context? Social context can be a powerful mediator and influence how pain is experienced. The social context of pain is such an important topic that there's even a movement to change the definition of pain from being an unpleasant sensory and an emotional experience to one that emphasizes pain as an experience associated with sensory, emotional, cognitive and social components.

Joining us to talk about the pain in a social context is Dr. Kai Karos. Kai earned a Bachelor's and a Master's in Psychology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He then went on to complete a PhD where he investigated the effects of threatening social environments on the experience and communication of pain. Kai is working as a postdoctoral researcher investigating in the social learning of pain-related fear and avoidance. You will learn all about pain as a threat to the social self, including how pain interferes with the basic human needs such as the need for autonomy, the need to belong and the need for justice and fairness. Kai is a highly sought-after speaker regarding the social context of pain and one of a small handful of researchers globally who is investigating this important topic. This is a topic that does not receive enough media attention, so I'm excited to share this with you.

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