Chronic pain: an insubordinate object

Based on reflections on the complexity of chronic pain and its impact on the main constituent elements of biomedicine, the article examines the gaps this phenomenon has revealed both in the production of knowledge and in clinical practice. It discusses new possibilities in health care based on the repositioning of agents and their interactions. This exploratory article presents an epistemological reading of the construction of chronic pain as a medical object, highlighting changes and constancies within biomedicine. It also presents a theoretical and methodological proposal focused on understanding the production of meanings of 'pain' among doctors, healthcare providers, and sufferers.