Psychomatrix: A Deeper Understanding of Our Relationship with Pain

What is pain? What does it mean that you have a relationship with it and how does this affect your identity and existence? Doreen Francis' definition of pain is derived from that proposed by scientists, such as Melzack and Wall and Freud. Pain is a dynamic, multi-layered, diverse collection of experiences, which impacts and influences us throughout life. Pain is a kind of conglomerate of past, traumatic, neurobiological, psychological and emotional imprints—pain as in suffering or being in pain. The author's aim here is to argue that it is not pain, as such, but our relationship with pain, which is most significant to the processes of our lives.

In examining the combination of Freud’s psychosexual theory of development and Melzack’s theory of the Neuromatrix, Francis endeavors to evidence her theory that there is the distinct possibility for the existence of what she has named a Psychomatrix—patterns of pain (loss - abandonment, grief, rejection, desire) imprinted from infancy within an innate matrix that are specifically translated by their own "psychological and emotional neural loops" and therefore, congruent with the neuromatrix concept. Her final conclusion: pain becomes an object that compels us to respond accordingly and consequently, thus defining our identity and existence.