This evening takes place in Dutch

Thinkers of today about tomorrow's health.

Think Care is a series of multi-part performances that brings together sharp thinkers on stage. Care providers, scientists, opinion makers and artists dissect the medical-ethical dilemmas in a human life and confront us with the big questions of our time. In words, music and images.

This edition: Pain - Feeling, disease or symptom?

Pain comes in many guises: gnawing toothache, migraine or back pain but also depression, phantom pain and the pain of being. It is a highly personal sensation that signals that something is wrong, a complex phenomenon that takes place between body and mind. Pain is sometimes a mystery but leaves no one untouched.

• How does pain arise?
• Do early experiences influence our perception of pain?
• What if pain loses its signaling function and becomes chronic?
• Does a pain clinic bring advice?
• Can we really understand the pain of others?
• Can pain always be measured or alleviated?
• Or is pain simply part of life?

Pain is hard to capture in words. We make an attempt and spend an evening talking with pain specialists and experts by experience. They unravel the mechanisms behind pain and expose what pain teaches us about ourselves and our humanity.

On stage 

• Hanne Craeymeersch | clinical psychologist (UZ Gent)

• Koen Paemeleire | neurologist and headache specialist (UZ Gent)

• Sam Schelfout | pain doctor (UZ Gent)

• Eva Spierenburg | visual artist and experiencer

• Birsen Taspinar | clinical psychologist

• Tine Van Ingelgem | psychologist and expert by experience

• Sophie Wouters | pediatrician Pain Clinic (UZ Gent)

• LIVE MUSIC Naima Joris & Vitja Pauwels

• HOST Lies Steppe, presenter and radio producer Klara

An initiative of Ghent University Hospital, in cooperation with Handelsreizigers in Ideeën and Ha Concerts

photo © Creedi Zhong