Traditional medical interventions for the management of pain have consisted largely of either pharmacological treatments or surgery to interrupt the involved neural pathways. The results of these procedures have been largely unsatisfactory because of debilitating side effects and recurrence of pain. Investigations of a host of psychological factors related to the pain experience, however, have spawned a variety of cognitive-behavioral treatments which have shown considerable promise in assisting people in coping with pain. This paper discusses the neurophysiological mechanisms which underly the pain phenomenon and which may account for some of these promising treatment effects. (Author)