pain as emergence

Pain exemplifies emergence because it is a complex output of the system and cannot be reduced to its elementary parts that cause it. Although reductionism helps in understanding some aspects of pain, it falls short of explaining the whole experience. For instance, people who have been in violent accidents may not lose consciousness and seem to feel no pain, which is a strange way pain arises. 

We know the examples of how people who have been in violent accident. don't lose consciousness and seem to be in no pain.  Search for mannequin hand pain experiment you will see weird way pain arises (you can watch one of it here ) . While we can comprehend some features of emergence, such as the activation of nociceptors and the involvement of chemicals, we are stuck when it comes to understanding how pain emerges in the system and is felt by us. 

Reductionism is a way to study complex systems by examining their subsystems. For example, we can study the nerve endings that are activated by a "painful" stimulus, identify the activated structures (nociceptors), follow the signal pathways, and trace where they end up in the brain cortex. However, this reductionism falls short of providing a complete picture of pain, as it is merely one pathway among many.

Unfortunately, many doctors and physical therapists reduce the complex system of pain to one muscle dysfunction, one tissue issue, or inflammation, thinking they have found the cause. However, this is reductionism of the worst variety, stemming from poor teaching of physiology in exercise therapy. Exercises do not merely change muscle strength, but the whole system from the brain to the endocrine system, resulting in a complex output.

Pain emergence involves numerous indivisible parts, such as central sensitization, nociception, acute changes in pain chemicals, innumerable pathways, inhibitors and excitatory chemicals, the complex psychological state of the patient, and the physical context that alters the biochemistry. Although we can read about these parts in a reductive manner, they are complex systems that are never merely parts, as the philosopher Nagarguna explained.

Therefore, we should never consider parts as causing factors, as they are far more complex. Exercise therapy leads to complex changes and seems to work in many instances of painful conditions. We should discard our exercise therapy books and disregard those who teach rubbish as "clinical reasoning," such as the cup boys and muscle impairment dorks.

Let us embrace the complexity of pain emergence and enjoy it.