No medical school has a pain curriculum... - John Bonica

The proper management of pain remains, after all, the most important obligation, the main objective, and the crowning achievement of every physician.

The crucial role of psychological and environmental factors in causing pain in a significant number of patients only recently received attention. As a consequence, there has emerged a sketch plan of pain apparatus with its receptors, conducting fibers, and its standard function which is to be applicable to all circumstances. But... in doing so, medicine has overlooked the fact that the activity of this apparatus is subject to the a constantly changing influence of the mind.

Nearly one-third of the population has persistent or recurrent chronic pain—and of those, one-half to two-thirds are either partially or totally disabled for periods of days, weeks, or months, and sometimes permanently.