[COMPAIN lecture series]
Title: Pain and the Life-World: Somatization and Psychologization
Speaker: Saulius Geniusas
Time: 20 November 2025 (12:00-13:30 CET and 19:00-20:30 CST)
The Taiwanese-German research project COMPAIN (The Complexity of Pain and Its Normative Implications) is investigating how ethical reflections on pain can adequately address its complexity. This topic has been emphasised in discussions from various fields, including medicine, neuroscience, and the philosophy of mind.
The COMPAIN research group invites scholars and the wider public to join a conversation on the complexity of pain and its ethical dimensions. To foster this exchange, we are launching the COMPAIN Lecture Series for the winter semester of 2025, featuring talks dedicated to pain-related themes from philosophical, medical, and interdisciplinary perspectives. We will start this week!
To participate in the lecture series, use the following Zoom link: https://uni-ms.zoom-x.de/j/2720643197?omn=62804254235
The first talk of the COMPAIN lecture series will feature Saulius Geniusas on 20 November 2025 (12:00-13:30 CET and 19:00-20:30 CST)
Title: Pain and the Life-World: Somatization and Psychologization
Abstract: By unpacking the processes of somatization – where psychological distress manifests as physical pain – and psychologization – where pain is reframed as psychological suffering – the talk will address the intricate interplay between somatic and psychological dimensions in pain experience. I will further show that pain is not only a physiological and psychological, but also a socio-cultural and historical phenomenon, shaped by the individual’s context and interactions within their lifeworld. Against such a background, I will maintain that the subject of pain is not the brain, but the person in the lifeworld.
Upcoming talks in the COMPAIN lecture series:
Hadeel Naeem on 27 November 2025 (12:00-13:30 CET and 19:00-20:30 CST)
Title: Pain, epistemic injustice, and AI
Philip Gerrans on 12 December 2025 (08:30-10:20 CET and 15:30-17:20 CST)
Title: Pain, suffering, and the self
Dieter Birnbacher on 15 January 2025 (12:00-13:30 CET and 19:00-20:30 CST)
Title: Pain, suffering, and the will
Kevin Reuter 29 January 2026 (12:00-13:30 CET and 19:00-20:30 CST)
Title: The complexity of the concept of pain
Noelia Bueno-Gómez 12 February 2026 (12:00-13:30 CET and 19:00-20:30 CST)
Title: The pathologization of suffering and pain
Everyone’s welcome to attend. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Dominik Koesling (dominik.koesling@uni-muenster.de)