Pain is one of the most common reasons people seek health care, yet it remains widely misunderstood. In Tell Me Where It Hurts: The New Science of Pain and How to Heal, pain psychologist Rachel Zoffness translates modern pain science into accessible language. The result is not just an educational text, but a narrative-driven argument about how pain is misunderstood—and how it might be reframed.
Zoffness opens with a provocative claim: “Everything you’ve been told about pain is wrong.” She critiques mainstream medicine’s reliance on a biomedical model that treats pain as a direct result of tissue damage. Instead, she presents pain as a biopsychosocial phenomenon shaped by biological, psychological, and social factors. As a reader, I find this reframing both persuasive and disorienting, forcing a reconsideration of assumptions that often go unquestioned.
The book’s greatest strength lies in its storytelling. Zoffness develops patients as fully realized individuals rather than abstract cases. Sam, for instance, is a 16-year-old who had been bedridden for four years, “pasty and pale,” socially isolated, and cycling through “fourteen doctors” and “forty medications” without relief . Rather than offering a dramatic cure, Zoffness focuses on incremental change: Standing outside, walking to the mailbox, reconnecting socially, and addressing anxiety and depression previously dismissed as unrelated to pain . She carefully emphasizes that pain is not “all in [the patient’s] head,” while still highlighting its psychological dimensions.
These step-by-step interventions make her argument tangible. However, the consistency of these narratives becomes noticeable over time. Story after story, the narratives follow a similar arc of gradual improvement, which can feel somewhat curated. While engaging, the lack of unresolved or ambiguous outcomes raises questions about how representative these cases are for readers with chronic, persistent pain.
Zoffness also critiques gaps in pain education, noting that many health care programs devote minimal time to pain science. She argues this lack of training contributes to overreliance on medication while overlooking factors like stress, sleep, and emotional health. This section feels particularly grounded, reinforcing the broader limitations of a purely biomedical approach.
Her emphasis on the brain further expands the book’s relevance beyond patients. The idea that pain is “constructed by the brain” is one of the book’s most clarifying concepts, helping to explain phenomena, such as phantom limb pain, and the disconnect between structural damage and lived pain experience. Personally, this reframing was one of the most impactful aspects of the book, shifting how I think about everyday pain experiences.
At the same time, the heavy reliance on anecdotes can create a sense of repetition. While the stories make complex science accessible, they often reinforce the same conclusion: Pain is multifactorial and improvement is possible. This consistency strengthens the message but limits nuance. I found myself wanting more variation, like cases where recovery was incomplete or uncertain.
Personally, I found the explanations helpful in reframing how I think about pain, particularly the idea that context, emotion, and past experience shape physical sensation. However, I would have liked to see more explicit, actionable exercises or structured takeaways integrated into these sections, rather than relying primarily on anecdotal reinforcement.
Zoffness also highlights neuroplasticity, arguing that if the brain can learn pain, it can also relearn recovery. This idea anchors the book’s optimistic tone.
Tell Me Where It Hurts is both compelling and uneven. It succeeds in making complex science accessible and reframes how pain is understood. However, its reliance on consistently hopeful narratives can feel selective. For new readers, it offers an engaging introduction. For those with chronic pain, it may feel both validating and cautiously optimistic.
Dezare Lozano
Dezare graduated from of San Diego State University in 2025 where she earned a degree in journalism with a minor in English. During her studies, she emphasized news writing and gained experience reporting and producing news stories.
Dezare is focused on expanding her skills across additional areas of journalism, including working in a newsroom at a large newspaper organization and traveling to capture compelling photojournalism. She also aspires to become a journalism professor in the future.
In her free time, Dezare enjoys sharpening her camera and writing skills. She also likes cooking, animating, and working on creative writing side projects.
