Chronic pain of obscure etiology produces suffering in patient, family and physician. They share a helplessness which often leads to desperate and occasionally harmful attempts to resolve the suffering. Recent biological and psychosocial research on the etiology of chronic pain suggests an increased role for behavioral medicine in chronic pain management. A treatment approach based on patient education, and working with the patient to at least reduce the pain, may lead to more effective and rational management of these patients by reducing the physician's helplessness and frustration.