PHANTOM PAIN

Without prior knowledge it would hardly occur to anyone that it is possible to feel pain in an amputated limb, exactly where the missing arm or leg used to be. Yet this is precisely what happens in most cases. Individuals who have had an amputation not only feel the presence of the missing limb but can also feel the pain. The pain is either occasional and acute or constant with somewhat less intensity. In some cases the pain gradually subsides over the years, in other cases it persists for life.

One of the oldest known accounts of the phantom limb phenomenon, with its associated painful sensations, comes