6 h. ago Pathemata by Maggie Nelson review – a writer’s attempt to describe chronic pain

Woolf said language ‘runs dry’ when it comes to convey the reality of illness. Here is an impressive effort to do just thatIn her landmark 1985 work, The Body in Pain, American essayist Elaine Scarry makes a case for the “unsharability” of pain and its resistance to language. “Physical pain,” she writes, “does not simply resist language but actively destroys it.” Sixty years earlier in On Being Ill, Virginia Woolf made her famous claim about how language “runs dry” when it comes to articulating illness. Both theories grapple with inexpressibility. Experiencing serious, persistent pain invokes many feelings: irritation, curiosity (what’s causing it?), fear (of something sinister) and ultimately the desire to eradicate it. The search for a diagnosis can be as debilitating as the condition itself. In Pathemata: Or, the Story of My Mouth, Maggie Nelson tries to solve the mystery of a longstanding health issue. “Each morning, it is as if my mouth has survived a war – it has pro...

Politics

4 d. ago Uber drivers to strike TOMORROW with protest in Manchester after claiming they're 'hanging by a thread'

"There are hidden epidemics of depression, chronic pain and broken relationships plaguing the workforce, because of unhealthily long hours spent on the road trying to scrape a living”

Events

6 d. ago Dear Jobs Guru: ‘I broke my arm at work. Is it too late to make a personal injury claim?’

Worker Mike is still in chronic pain from a workplace injury three years ago – and now he’s been told he needs surgery. Our Jobs Guru James Innes is here with some much-needed advice

Events

2 w. ago Experts say hypnotherapy ‘best treatment’ for common childhood ailment

Irritable bowel syndrome, abdominal migraines, and unexplained pain cause “chronic, debilitating pain” in up to 300 million children globally

Politics

2 w. ago How hypnotherapy could treat sickness affecting 12 per cent of children

Irritable bowel syndrome, abdominal migraines, and unexplained pain cause “chronic, debilitating pain” in up to 300 million children globally

Politics

3 w. ago Disabled RAF hero pilot says government welfare cuts will ruin his life as he urges Starmer to reconsider

Ian Hewitt was just two months into his air force training when he suffered the horror injury, which ended his military career. He has been forced to live with ''paralysis, seizures and chronic pain' for years.

Politics