Whereof One Cannot Speak: On the Limits of Language to Describe Pain

The author describes their experience with severe, recurring jaw pain that began in Chicago over a decade ago during a summer seminar.

The pain started as a slight tingling in the jaw but escalated to intense, burning agony that felt like an iron rod piercing through the neck and jaw, radiating across the teeth.

For 36 sleepless hours, the author applied a dental numbing agent called Benzidine, mistakenly assuming the pain was dental in origin.

Without dental insurance, they feared the pain would never end until it suddenly subsided on the second day.

The author highlights how the pain was so overwhelming that it erased all other concerns and left them with no words to describe it.

The pain later returned intermittently, defying clear recollection due to its intensity, which the author compares to Emily Dickinson’s concept of the Element of Blank—a state where the onset of pain is impossible to pinpoint.