Chapitre 1 ÉTHIQUE DE LA PRISE EN CHARGE DE LA DOULEUR : DE LA COMPASSION À LA SOLIDARITÉ

Abstract

The object of this text is to shed light on some ethical aspects of the issue of pain management and to present some thoughts on certain strategies for controlling pain and the fight against pain. Three themes are developed here: The experience of pain as a structuring phenomenon of an individual’s life, from its articulation in cries and moans to its expression in existential ethical attitudes such as compassion and consolation. Their philosophical foundation is examined in the light of the figure of Job, symbol of human pain, capital protagonist in the problem of evil. From compassion to solidarity: transition from “suffering to acting”, in its two moments; the passive one, of the “affection” of self by one’s pain as of identification, by “empathy” with others; the active one, of managing pain by the conversion of the “suffering” self into an acting subject showing solidarity. Ethical aspects of the strategies of pain management: “mental” strategies using psychological techniques, philosophical and religious doctrines to fight against pain, from the ancient stoicism and epicurism to the Islamic “sabr” (patience, long suffering) via the Christian dolorism; psycho-chemical and biomedical strategies, only referred because they belong to biological and medical science and techniques and public health institutions; analysis of some ethical problems induced by the institutionalisation of solidarity.