Media Depictions
In Stieg Larsson's Millennium series, former boxer Paolo Roberto discovers that Ronald Niedermann was born with congenital analgesia and is therefore, as he describes "invulnerable" physically. ("He just keeps on going!") Even so, Roberto continues that his inability to perceive pain is a severe danger because Niedermann has no way of understanding when his body is being put in mortal danger by way of punches, blows, burns, or even gunshots. It is suggested that human awareness of painful stimuli is an evolutionary necessity to avoid injury and death.
The Grey's Anatomy episode "Sometimes a Fantasy" features a young girl named Megan Clover that suffers from congenital analgesia believing herself to be a superhero.
The movie Bereavement features a boy named Martin Bristol who suffers congenital analgesia who is kidnapped by a crazed man and taught the ways of murder.
The episode of House M.D. entitled "Insensitive" also features a young girl named Hannah Morganthal who suffers from congenital analgesia, making her sickness extremely difficult to diagnose.
One episode of N.C.I.S. featured a torturer who was "unable to feel pain himself" played by William Morgan Sheppard.
In the 2011 slasher film Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings, the characters Three Finger, One Eye and Saw Tooth are said to have the disorder by the head of the sanatorium they are in in the portion of the film set in 1974, with it being theorized that the condition was the result of inbreeding. Due to their inability to properly register pain, the three were depicted as being prone to self-harm in their youth, mutilating, severing and eating some of their own body parts. The disorder is also referenced throughout the series, especially the first film, Wrong Turn. The opening credits depict a medical journal talking about "resistance to pain" among other birth defects, and the entire series show the antagonists ignoring non-crippling injuries.
In the play "Almost, Maine" by John Cariani, the vignette "This Hurts" is about a man with Congenital Analgesia, or "Hereditary Sensory Neuropathy Type 4", who is clocked in the head with an ironing board, and in the end feels the pain of love.
In the mystery novel "The Freak Show Case" by Brian D. Eyre and Lezlie K. King, the detective's client and prime suspect has Congenital Analgesia and believes he cannot feel pain. He learns quickly that not all pain is physical, and that emotional pain can be extremely real and extremely motivating.
The video game Dark Sector's protagonist, as shown in previews has this disease, and as such while others infected went mad from the pain, he remains sane and rational.
In an episode of Grimm titled "Game Ogre" (season 1, episode 8), an escaped murderer is believed to have this condition, but in reality, he is monster, whose race naturally don't feel pain.
Episode 31 of series 14 of Holby City sees fictional doctor Elliot Hope perform an operation on a patient with this disease.
In the fourth season episode of The X-Files titled "Home" the members of the Peacock family all exhibit insensitivity to pain, it is implied this is due to generations of inbreeding.
Read more about this topic: Congenital Insensitivity To Pain
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