willfranks

In the case of humans, it seems self-evident that suffering is a consciously experienced, mental or psychological phenomenon. This makes it difficult to quantify, given our lack of access to other beings’ qualia. However, the science of neuropsychology seeks to correlate reports of subjective experience with quantitative measures of physiological (brain) activity. If the variable being reported by subjects is the (relative) degree of suffering experienced at any moment, this gives us a way to quantify suffering by correlating this variable with relevant brain-scan variables. Once quantitative measures are in place, different methods for suffering alleviation (e.g. meditation, therapy, psychotherapeutic drugs) can be assessed for their relative efficacy. This already happens in clinical contexts, for example by measuring the effect of “Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction” (MBSR) on variables such as cortisol levels, which are related to consciously experienced stress. I’m not aware of any research to extend suffering-quantification (and subsequent alleviation) beyond clinical settings and into “everyday life”. Most people will never have a clinical symptom that requires a psychotherapeutic treatment, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be subject to significant amounts of suffering throughout their lives. We might call that “everyday suffering”. Measuring everyday suffering, e.g. measuring cortisol levels of healthy subjects in their day-to-day lives, might inform opportunities to alleviate it. This is probably already happening to some extent. An example intervention: given MBSR’s efficacy at alleviating stress-levels of those with psychiatric disorders, it stands to reason that it will alleviate the stress of healthy subjects. Thus, one might imagine a government funded program to provide all citizens access to MBSR as a means of reducing cortisol/stress levels and their associated suffering. Alleviating everyday suffering is akin to the “betterment of well people”