Key points

Disease, pain, and suffering exist in a circular, not linear, relationship.

Medical attention to objective disease has not been enough to relieve patients' pain.

Eric Cassell rejected a dualism of mind and body but fell back into the dualism of person and body.

We need to focus medical attention on the unified problem of pain and suffering.

Pain and suffering are some of the most common reasons patients seek out doctors. These patients seek answers about the causes of pain and they seek relief. Pain and suffering are not only unpleasant experiences that compromise our well-being. They threaten the sense we make of the world. Pain makes each of us ask: Why me? Why now?

While pain and suffering have always been a problem for humans, they have not been the same kind of prob

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