Byung-Chul Han

31
The struggle for survival stands opposed to the concern for a good life. A society dominated by the hysteria of survival is a society of zombies (the original German das Untote, referring to beings that are actually dead yet return among the living and pretend to be alive. Usually, unlike ghosts, the soul in life has died, and only the body lives on. Vampires or zombies belong to this category; here it is translated as "zombie" — translator). We are too alive to die, and too dead to live. In that we care only about survival, we resemble viruses — beings that don't actually live but only multiply; in other words, beings that survive, less-than-dead.



41
The feeling of the older sister's hand stroking slips between him and his pain, and this new feeling pushes the pain away.

Today we are moving further and further away from this archetypal form of healing. It is becoming rarer and rarer to experience healing care as the sensation of being touched and spoken to. We live in a society where loneliness and isolation are increasing. Narcissism and self-centeredness sharpen loneliness and isolation. The intensification of competition and the weakening of solidarity and empathy also drive people apart. The inability to experience closeness amid loneliness acts as an amplifier on pain. Perhaps chronic pain or self-inflicted cuts are all cries of the body longing for warmth and closeness, and further, for love — eloquent warnings that today contact has grown scarce. The healing other's hand has clearly disappeared from our side. No painkiller can replace that archetype of healing.

The etiologies of chronic pain are diverse. Discord, distortion, and rigidity in social relationships cause or strengthen chronic pain. Chronic pain has become unbearable above all because today's society has lost its meaning. Chronic pain reflects our society that has lost its meaning, an age that has lost its stories. Within such a society and era, life has become bare survival. Painkillers or mind research can hardly solve anything. They only cover up the sociocultural causes of pain.