The Importance of Suffering: The Value and Meaning of Emotional Discontent 1st Edition

The importance of suffering is a timely book that addresses problematic aspects of how modern western societies relate to life's psychological challenges and sufferings, big and small. The main perspective of Davies's book is that a very significant part of experienced psychological suffering today relates to the need for environmental change and personal improvement rather than being signs of illnesses in need of medical treatment. The book gives countless examples of how normal reactions to common life experiences ends up being diagnosed as illness/dysfunction in an ever expanding complex of diversionary tactics and medicalization.An important aspect of Davies's book is the concept of anaesthetized suffering. In modern society where priority is given to frictionless integration and pleasure, we often do not accept even modest levels of suffering. As physical pain can be a signal that our body needs to be taken care of, so can emotional suffering be a an indication that change is required in the mental/spiritual domain. If these signals are not taken seriously, the end result is often secondary problems that in turn gives rise to what Davies calls “anaesthetic regimes”. These regimes, consciously or unconsciously, profits from supplying remedies to sufferers of secondary symptoms caused by unsolved primary problems.The importance of suffering will also supply the reader with valuable perspectives from other cultures, both historic and contemporary, and show how their attitude towards emotional hardship and pain differs from ours in ways that can be inspiring.The importance of suffering is an interesting and concise volume about an important topic and can be highly recommended.Davies's other book Cracked: The Unhappy Truth about Psychiatry is also an interesting read.

Hello, this is an important book on emotional suffering - I have been around people who use antidepressants like there is no tomorrow to avoid any internal dialogue and exploration into the reasons of their unhappiness - no doubt they never changed. Recently, I experienced a challenging time when I moved to another country: different environment, way to do things, way to relate to people and socialize. This made me reflect on myself and my assumptions. This book helped me to focus on what emotional suffering is and how to experience it in a constructive way. I highly recommend this book to anybody who wants to know more about this subject. Also, I rarely see an academic producing something actually useful to the public, this is an exception and should not be overlooked.

Hervorragend, es wären weitere solcher Perspektiven auf das Menschliche Erleben sehr wünschenswert.In Zeiten in denen vorrangig eine Position vertreten wird, in der der Mensch als Opfer phantasiert wird,eine Perspektive die dem evolutionären Denken angemessen ist.

This book offers an interesting reflection on suffering and its essential role in healthy human development. The author draws from anthropology, psychology and philosophy to offer an engaging argument on the value and positive function of suffering. Pain and suffering can be a valuable catalysts to promote growth and awareness at the individual as well as at collective levels, instead of being considered symptoms to be anesthesised (by medication, quick fix therapies and industries claiming to provide relief from general life experiences which have become labelled as 'problems' e.g. ageing, heartbreak, ordinariness). This mindful discussion that successfully reframes the importance of suffering would be a particularly helpful resource to those in the mental health industries, social workers, educators and those interested in current social cultural studies.

Excellent book. Very well-written and clear, important. James Davis has written a realistic book on suffering. I took this on holiday and read it mostly by the pool (with a rye smile revelling in my own individuality) and found myself being 'hooked' into a description of the human condition followed by an examination of 'healthy' or 'natural' emotional suffering which amounts to 'a wake up call' to make changes versus 'unproductive' suffering which has no benefit whatsoever. I urge anyone who is suffering to read this book... er.. which means everyone!

Brilliant

Very informative, utilitarian and pragmatic to become empowered in understanding ones emotions and their importance