Is Nociception Required for Pain?
toddhargrove.substack.comIs Nociception Required for Pain?Another Unfortunate Semantic Debate✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Part of the MichaelFilter
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Unlock the full reading · $5.50 →Todd Hargrove analyzes a debate over whether pain requires nociception, critiquing a paper by Weisman, Quintner, and Cohen that tries to replace the aphorism 'nociception is neither necessary nor sufficient for pain' with 'nociception is necessary but not sufficient for pain.' He argues their case is primarily semantic and self-contradictory, conflating current IASP definitions with definitions they would prefer. The piece illustrates how unproductive terminology disputes can obscure substantive discussion of pain physiology.
Teaching:
• Help students separate sensation from interpretation: a knee can ache in Marichyasana D without tissue being damaged, and pain can be absent when tissue actually is stressed.
• Cue with language that respects the 'resembling' clause of pain: ask what it feels like, not just where it hurts, before deciding to back off or continue.
• Use this to reframe practice for chronic-pain students: pain is an output of the whole system, not a simple readout of joint damage.
• When teaching adjustments, avoid the assumption that no pain means safe and pain means injury; both can mislead without context.
Writing seeds:
• Short essay: 'Pluto, Pain, and Pasasana' — when a terminology fight in a field masks a deeper disagreement about how the system works.
• Shala Daily post: 'What your knee is actually saying' — a primer on nociception vs pain for Ashtanga students.
• Ashtanga.tech piece: a functional framework for triaging sensation in practice using necessary/sufficient logic.
• Essay seed: 'Definitions as infrastructure' — how shared vocabulary (in pain science, in yoga lineages) determines what conversations are even possible.
Idea map:
• Reinforces systems literacy: pain is a system output, not a one-to-one signal, mirroring how asana is a system not a shape.
• Connects to attention work: precise language about sensation trains more precise interior perception.
• Echoes his critique of lineage jargon — definitional sloppiness lets teachers talk past students and each other.
• Supports practice-as-method: the body is investigated through careful distinctions, not slogans.
Source: https://toddhargrove.substack.com/p/is-nociception-required-for-pain
Teaching:
• Help students separate sensation from interpretation: a knee can ache in Marichyasana D without tissue being damaged, and pain can be absent when tissue actually is stressed.
• Cue with language that respects the 'resembling' clause of pain: ask what it feels like, not just where it hurts, before deciding to back off or continue.
• Use this to reframe practice for chronic-pain students: pain is an output of the whole system, not a simple readout of joint damage.
• When teaching adjustments, avoid the assumption that no pain means safe and pain means injury; both can mislead without context.
Writing seeds:
• Short essay: 'Pluto, Pain, and Pasasana' — when a terminology fight in a field masks a deeper disagreement about how the system works.
• Shala Daily post: 'What your knee is actually saying' — a primer on nociception vs pain for Ashtanga students.
• Ashtanga.tech piece: a functional framework for triaging sensation in practice using necessary/sufficient logic.
• Essay seed: 'Definitions as infrastructure' — how shared vocabulary (in pain science, in yoga lineages) determines what conversations are even possible.
Idea map:
• Reinforces systems literacy: pain is a system output, not a one-to-one signal, mirroring how asana is a system not a shape.
• Connects to attention work: precise language about sensation trains more precise interior perception.
• Echoes his critique of lineage jargon — definitional sloppiness lets teachers talk past students and each other.
• Supports practice-as-method: the body is investigated through careful distinctions, not slogans.
Source: https://toddhargrove.substack.com/p/is-nociception-required-for-pain
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