Page 35 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 24

difficultrealityofthesitua�on,withoutjudgement Freud and Jung
orapproval.Toacceptthings,wecannotchange.
This process involves confron�ng and accep�ng
the facts of the situa�on, rather than figh�ng
against reality or catastrophizing. This enables
us to foster growth and reduce anxiety. My
ques�on is this, would this DBT approach work
in the face of intense and unremi�ng pain?
Schopenhauer offers us no cheery thoughts
about how to be content, just those on how
we can understand our suffering for what it
is.
Nietzsche disagrees with Schopenhauer that
the solu�on to pain and suffering is avoidance.
He thought that pain would be useful, even
helpful. Athletes, for example, have a mantra of
‘no pain, no gain’. These sports people feel in-
tense discomfort, the burn of lac�c acid for ex-
ample, but keep going because they want to
win. Ar�sts take terrible sadness and use it cre-
a�vely. For example, Nietzsche notes that the
Greek Tragedies do not show a way out of
suffering. They show how to live a life of
courage in the face of extreme difficul�es.
Greek Tragedies for Nietzsche are not the con-
text where suffering is denied. They are the
place where it is explored as the essen�al as-
pects of being alive. For Nietzsche, pain and
suffering are valuable. By working our way
through suffering, we can emerge as be�er
people. Nietzsche thought that Schopenhauer
was too passive. Life is not about retrea�ng, by
being reclusive or detached. The opposite is
true. Life is about staying involved, accep�ng
the struggle and having agency in how things
turn out.
For Nietzsche the ques�on was, do you want to
avoid suffering, or do you want to get good at
it?’ People who live meaningfully prac�ce the
‘Will to Power’. They don’t shy away from chal-
lenges; they take them on board. The ul�mate
ques�on for Nietzsche here is, do we want to
embrace or escape life? For Nietzsche it is the
fight that for�fies. Pain isn’t a curse, but a
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source of growth .
In our western hedonis�c society, we are pain-
avoidant or try to be. Therefore, Nietzsche’s ap-
proach sounds counterintui�ve and counter-
cultural. We tend to be more like Schopen-
hauer in our approach to pain.
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35
Sigmund Freud (1856 -1939) and Carl Jung
(1875 – 1961), are widely recognized as pio-
neers of psychoanalysis. Although they went
their separate ways theore�cally and in terms
of therapeu�c prac�ce, nevertheless they had
similar views on the subject on pain and suffer-
ing. Freud viewed pain as a crucial part of life
and a mo�vator for behavior. He explored
these ideas in his book, Beyond the Pleasure
Principle. Freud recognized that the human
mind tends to be governed by the ‘pleasure
and unpleasure principle’ which drives us to
embrace pleasure and avoid pain. However, he
believed that ‘pain is not an obstacle to healing
but the path itself’. This can be observed in
Freud’s concept of the ‘reality principle’, which
helps the ego balance the pleasure principle
with the demands of the external world and
through the necessary process of bringing re-
pressed, painful material into the conscious
awareness. Put simply, Freud believed that pain
could ‘force’ other buried pain to the surface of
our awareness. This would aid the healing
process.
Jung held a similar view about pain. He saw
pain not as a random occurrence or punish-
ment, but as a fundamental aspect of life that
serves as a ‘crucial catalyst for psychological
growth, self-awareness, and individua�on. For
Jung, Pain acts as ‘a messenger from the uncon-
scious, urging individuals to confront hidden
aspects of their psyche, acknowledge their
“shadow side,” and ul�mately become more
whole and integrated’. Jung’s approach to pain
is best summed up in his own words, “There is
no coming to consciousness without pain.”
Dostoevsky (1821 -1881) and Ka�a (1883 -1924)
Dostoevsky viewed pain and suffering as in-
evitable. However, his views seem to be some-
what eli�st. He saw pain as inevitable and ben-
eficial, especially in the lives of those with ‘in-
telligence and a deep heart’, as he wrote in his
novel, Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky saw
pain as an educa�onal change agent, “Pain
changes you, but it teaches. That is its mercy”.
The novelist understood pain as ‘a pathway to
understanding’, not that dissimilar to Freud and
Jung. For Dostoevsky, pain is a difficult but nec-