5^th January 1932, Vienna.

Paul Wittgenstein sits behind his grand piano, ready for his premiere performance.  His piece for the evening is Maurice Ravels’ Piano Concerto in G major.

Wittgenstein takes a breath.  And then he starts to play.

His body sways, immersed in the moment, and his fingers dance effortlessly across the keys as the music fills the concert hall.

The audience are spellbound.

But what they don’t know is that Wittgenstein is playing with a severe pain in his right hand.

At times the pain tingles like pins and needles.  At other times the pain is sharp and throbbing.

But despite the pain, Wittgenstein plays on.

And as the music reaches its final crescendo, the audience bursts into giddy applause.

Wittgenstein is finished.  His recital has been a huge success.

By now you might be thinking “so what?”. 

Well, I’ve kept a small detail back from you.

The Piano Concerto in G major was written just for Wittgenstein and this piece of music has another, more famous name:

Piano Concerto for the Left Hand.

See, Wittgenstein was an amputee.  He served in World War I, where he was shot in the elbow at the Battle of Galicia.  He later had his right arm amputated.

Wittgenstein went on to become a renowned, one-handed concert pianist. 

So what about that pain in Wittgenstein’s right hand?  A right hand that wasn’t there?

Well, to Wittgenstein that pain felt very real.  It unmistakeably was in his right hand.

This might sound crazy, but it’s a fairly well-known phenomenon.

The sensation of pain or discomfort in a limb which has been amputated is known as Phantom Limb Pain.  Between 75% and 95% of amputees experience it.

And even though the limb is missing, the person feels the pain as if it’s coming from the actual body part which is missing.

Which, clearly, is impossible.

And given the pain doesn’t exist in the physical world (after all, there’s no limb for that pain to exist in), it suggests that pain must exist somewhere else.

All this makes me wonder: 

If someone can feel an unequivocal, visceral sense of pain in a body part which doesn’t exist, what does this mean for pain in parts of the body which do exist? 

What does this mean for other types of pain, like mental or emotional pain?

And, more the point – what is pain?

All interesting questions to ponder. 

Answers on a postcard please.

That’s all for today.

 - Tom