Pain Points with Max Shen

A Paradigm Change in Biology


Listen Later

essays.debugyourpain.com


## Timestamps

00:00:00 Introduction - The Coming Paradigm Change in Biology  

00:02:00 The Biomedical Paradigm: Materialism, Reductionism, and Dualism  

00:05:00 How Pain Is Usually Explained (And Why It's Wrong)  

00:07:00 Problems with Materialism, Reductionism, Dualism

00:12:00 Pain Without Damage, Damage Without Pain  

00:15:00 The Alternative: Biological Computation and Collective Intelligence. 

00:26:00 Health as Problem-Solving Ability, Not Statistical Norms  

00:30:00 Pain as a Control Signal and Skill  

00:32:00 The Somatic Scientists - Ida Rolf, Moshe Feldenkrais, FM Alexander  

00:37:00 Why RCTs Don't Work for Complex Therapies  

00:42:00 Bridging Science and Practice 

## Key Figures Mentioned

- **Michael Levin** (Tufts) - Biological computation and collective intelligence

- **Karl Friston** (University College London) - Active inference and free energy principle

- **Dennis Noble** (Oxford) - Biological relativity and heart pacemaker cells

- **Ida Rolf** - Developed Rolfing, emphasized fascia connections

- **Moshe Feldenkrais** - Physicist turned movement therapist

- **FM Alexander** - Alexander Technique founder

Resources

- Ashar, Yoni K., et al. "Effect of pain reprocessing therapy vs placebo and usual care for patients with chronic back pain: a randomized clinical trial." JAMA psychiatry 79.1 (2022): 13-23.

- Noble, Denis. "A theory of biological relativity: no privileged level of causation." Interface focus 2.1 (2012): 55-64.

- Wampold, Bruce E., and Zac E. Imel. The great psychotherapy debate: The evidence for what makes psychotherapy work. Routledge, 2015.

- Beyond Biomechanics: The Enactive Inference Approach to Health and Movement: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/uqcs4_v1



About the Host

Max is a former machine learning researcher who pivoted to studying pain and cognition after experiencing chronic pain during graduate school. He now uses computational tools to study chronic pain at MIT.

---

- Substack: debugyourpain.substack.com

**Get in touch:**

- Email: [email protected]

- Twitter: @mxslk

- Substack: debugyourpain.substack.com




This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit essays.debugyourpain.com
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Pain Points with Max ShenBy Max Shen