Physical pain is a subjective sensation experienced when a signal travels through nerve fibers to the brain. The experience is different for every person and can differ in duration and intensity which makes it challenging to define and treat.
Psychological Pain
Mental pain often stems from a non-physical origin, sometimes argued to be an inescapable aspect of human existence.1 The experience of mental pain is far wider and subjective than physical pain as there are a wider range of possible causes, most of which are poorly understood.
Psychological pain is often linked to emotions and the results of biochemical interactions in the brain. It can also be brought about by various mental disorders or mental phenomena.
“A lasting, unsustainable, and unpleasant feeling resulting from negative appraisal of an inability or deficiency of the self.”2
Footnotes
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Wille RSG. On the capacity to endure psychic pain. The Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review. 2011;34:23–30. ↩
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Meerwijk EL, Weiss SJ. Toward a unifying definition of psychological pain. Journal of Loss & Trauma. 2011;16(5):402–12. doi:10.1080/15325024.2011.572044. ↩