Suffering and the âAcceptability Gapâ: A Concept of Convergence

David MacKintosh

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Suffering and the âAcceptability Gapâ: A Concept of Convergence

In: Making Sense of Suffering: A Collective Attempt

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David MacKintosh

David MacKintosh
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 29â40

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848881235_005

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The identification and relief of suffering are widely recognised as primary goals of medicine, particularly towards the end of life when treatment of disease may no longer give relief. However, a clinically useful conceptualisation of suffering remains elusive. To be clinically useful a conceptualisation of suffering should accurately describe the phenomenon in question, and, be intellectually accessible, generalisable in all respects and provide guidance over therapeutic intervention. It should, in addition, recognise the intensely personal nature of the experience, free of professional interpretation or judgement. One definition which claims to satisfy these conditions has been proposed â âSuffering is a consequence of self awareness and occurs when a personâs current state fails to match a state he or she is able to accept.â â the âacceptability gapâ. Based on the results of a qualitative study, reported in 2000, this conceptualisation shares much with related models in other areas of psychosocial enquiry, particularly the regulation of emotion and quality of life; for example âtransition statesâ, âpsychosocial transitionsâ, the âCalman gapâ, the âresponse shiftâ, the âmodal modelâ of emotion regulation. The common feature of these models is a recursive process of appraisal resulting in individuals resetting their emotional responses and expectations with, hopefully, a consequent reduction in levels of distress. Despite their differing origins the above models, in fact, describe the same phenomenon â that of the experience of personal suffering and how individuals respond to and manage their suffering. The concept of an âacceptability gapâ in the description of suffering can be shown to satisfy the criteria for a clinically useful definition of suffering with particular regard to reaffirming its intensely personal nature. Importantly, it emphasises the primacy of an individualâs response to, rather than the nature of, a stimulus.

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Making Sense of Suffering: A Collective Attempt

E-Book ISBN:: 9781848881235

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 01 Jan 2013

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Suffering and the âAcceptability Gapâ: A Concept of Convergence

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Making Sense of Suffering: A Collective Attempt

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Suffering and the âAcceptability Gapâ: A Concept of Convergence