Criticising ‘Total Pain’: Definite Concept or Ambiguous Term?

Having established the definitional confusion in both Cicely Saunders’s and subsequent uses of ‘total pain’, in this chapter I explore criticisms of the usefulness of Saunders’s term. While happy that ‘total pain’ implies the complexities of pain and personhood, many authors seem less comfortable with the theoretical ramifications of Saunders’s ambiguous choice of words, supposing them to be inappropriate or impossible to measure. Although valid, I argue these criticisms often understand ‘total pain’ as a well-theorised concept coming up against the practical parameters of modern professionalised healthcare settings when it might more accurately be described as a term or phrase that makes up in practical use for what it apparently lacks in analytic rigour.