Cultural Ontology of the Self in Pain, an edited volume by Siby K George and P G. Jung, seeks to release one of the most fundamental concepts of human existence—pain—from the clutches of its reductive, physicalist, and mechanistic understanding in modern medicine. This anthology consisting of fourteen papers follows squarely in the tradition of medical humanities, which aims to provide a holistic understanding of pain and suffering through narratives grounded in diverse cultural and social contexts, thereby fostering a more humane and compassionate attitude towards pain. The uniqueness of this volume lies in its contextualisation of this topic in the social and political history of India.