Pain, Power, and Policing: Emotional Injustice in Healthcare

Chronic pain patients frequently encounter not only physical suffering but also emotional dismissal and misrecognition in clinical settings. This paper argues that such experiences reflect a pervasive form of structural harm: emotional injustice. Chronic pain sufferers, especially women and members of marginalized groups, are often subject to emotion policing—the unjust regulation of emotional expression that distorts, suppresses, or discredits their feelings of frustration, sadness, and anger. Stereotypes like “women are emotional” or “boys don’t cry” shape how patients’ pain is interpreted and whether their emotional expressions are seen as credible, appropriate, or pathological. As a result, patients’ emotions are routinely misread, their reports of pain discounted, and their treatment delayed or denied. Through the lens of emotion stereotyping, display suppression, and emotion hegemonizing, I show how dominant emotional norms constrain how chronic pain patients can express distress and advocate for themselves. These practices compromise emotional autonomy— their ability to experience and express fitting emotions in ways that reflect their circumstances, values, and lived reality—and reinforce systemic inequities in healthcare. While these harms intersect with forms of epistemic injustice, I argue that emotional injustice captures a distinct and deeper wrong: the denial of patients’ ability to make sense of and communicate their emotional suffering on their own terms. Recognizing emotional injustice in the treatment of chronic pain is crucial for promoting more equitable, respectful, and compassionate care—care that honors the emotional realities of patients’ lives.