Liminal experience in chronic pain

Abstract

This article describes and analyzes the experience and care trajectory of a patient suffering from chronic pain, diagnosed as trigeminal neuralgia, under the theoretical and methodological premises of medical anthropology and the Turnerian social drama; the patient in question was attended by a public health institution in Mexico City. The experience is recreated herein through the observation of a therapeutic ritual during clinical care, along with the application of interviews, which contributed to provide the context of care and the narrative of the trajectory of the suffering as a life experience, to the perceptions and repercussions of the suffering of chronic pain in the subject, as well as in his family and social environment, thus portraying the complexity of the experience of corporeity in liminal situations.