Dr James Alexander, PhD- Psychologist

Psychological pain and chronic physical pain are obviously the flip sides of the same coin.

As long as we as a culture keep treating the mental/emotional aspects and physical aspects of the human organism as separate realities, chronic pain will continue to exist as a Western epidemic. Our health system is equipped with a philosophy and technology which fosters this false separation, so that the 'ideal' is for a sufferer to see a physiotherapist for the physical pain (who will treat them like a clever collection of nuts and bolts), and then see a psychiatrist (the vast majority of whom will only treat them with drugs- yet another bio-mechanistic approach), or a psychologist (most of whom will only treat them with cognitive behaviour therapy- CBT-  psychology's psycho-mechanistic preference). Only a few lucky ones will get to see either a physical therapist with an appreciation of psycho-social factors in chronic pain; or a psychological therapist who knows the connection between emotional factors and our physical experience. The TMS Wiki page has a list of practitioners in different parts of the world who practice mind/body therapy in relation to chronic pain.

The linked article shows that the relationship between emotional pain and chronic physical pain is there in increasing proportions amongst the up-coming generation. Australia is tetering on a chronic pain ration of 1/3 to 1/5 people. America is already at 1/3 people suffering from chronic pain. This is not happening because there is something inherently faulty in the human structure, or because the structure is increasingly failing- it is happening because of the amount of distress in society, and this appears to be growing in the form of young people who have been traumastised in their infancy by a lack of attachment with their primary care givers. How much worse does it have to get until we are willing to let go of what does not work? That is, a mechanistic way of making sense of the living human.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140212112839.htm