Uses and Definitions of ‘Total Pain’ after Saunders: Many Holisms

In this chapter, I consider ‘total pain’ as a form of medical holism. While usually valued for how it understands pain as more than just physical, subsequent interpretations of the term reflect Cicely Saunders’s own flexible use of ‘total pain’, as outlined in Chapter 1. While interpretations that separate ‘total pain’ into multiple parts can appear to sanction reductionism, I use various historical forms of medical holism to explore how ‘total pain’ also tolerates interpretations that acknowledge the complexities of issues like embodiment or indeterminacy. I end by using a distinction established by Lawrence and Weisz to suggest that seemingly contradictory versions of the holism of ‘total pain’ coexist in diverse professional and educational contexts as forms of either cognitive or cultural holism.