Gate Control Theory of Pain

Invented by Canadian-born psychology Ronald Melzack and English physiologist Patrick Wall early 60s, it borrowed the motif of feedback, information processing, and cybernetics from computer science: “From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, a new concept, gate control theory, arose to support the liberalization of the new field [of pain medicine]. . . . the uptake of gate control owed less to a ‘cultural spirit’ whisking ideas along and much more to the fact that the theory resonated on multiple levels with the era’s legal battles, cultural critiques, pain relief practices, and liberalizing political commitments. But “The theory offered no specificity about actual mechanisms operating these gates in any one person,” and encouraged unconventional approaches to pain therapy (Waterloo II).