Psychology of pain: classification of types of pain, based on subjective experience

The article deals with the problem of studying pain as a psychological reality, states that there is a shortage of existing criteria for the classification of types of pain, discusses the results of an empirical study of experiencing pain on the material of an autobiographical narrative about it. The authors claim that there are methodological limitations to the natural science approach to the interpretation of pain. The question of the scientific conceptualization of psychological pain is raised from the position of subjective criteria for the classification of types of pain. Based on the memories of pain, a categorical grid is formulated, which demonstrates: systemic work of the psyche while experiencing pain; the contradictions between the natural and scientific language of the expression of the experience of pain, as well as the «poverty» of the scientific description of pain. The results of the study also demonstrate the features of the subjective representation of two types of pain: physical and psychological, each of which has a specific description language.