You might think that there is something too rumpty-tumpty about this, but the savage snap of the final line suggests far better the painful puncturing of illusions than if it had been preceded by something more complex – while also suggesting that there is something childish about the observation itself.
They tested this pain relief strategy by using a technique known as thermal grill illusion to create painful but innocuous burning sensations in the fingers of study participants.
Be forewarned that the reality of the truth may be more painful and difficult than the illusion of your current existence.
Some methods of execution might be less painful than others, and the illusion that someone might be gently sent off to permanent sleep may make us feel more civilized about a process that has, in the past, involved hanging, electrocution, beheading, firing squad and poisonous gas.
She was under no illusions about how painful it could be, however.
Lindstedt's team tested every pattern on 20 people, and as expected the volunteers found the illusion more unpleasant or painful than normal hot and cold.
And the whole, spare, resonant show comes together in a sculpture of a single slender branch bristling with sharp thorns and cast in solid gold; the more alluring illusion is, the more be painful it can be.
The Italian is under no illusions, acutely aware of the painful circumstances behind his good fortune.
Now, the implications of that statement are seriously painful to me, since I have no illusions that the vast majority of restaurants we enjoy so much (especially the small ethnic ones) are buying anything but factory-farmed meat.
"The painful experience of the 1970s showed that this illusion on the part of policy-makers came at a terrible price for working men and women in this country.
