>
> I searched as well, with no luck. The more I think about it, though, the more I'm sure that if I were to compose such a list, all of the top 10 would be some sort of unrelenting physical agony. That is, if the amount of pain is measured in per unit of time.


I didn't take it to mean exclusively literal pain. I have seen lists of "most stressful events" that a person can go through (actually used to predict your vulnerability to illness), so that's how I figured "most painful thing list" was meant--emotional pain as well as literal pain.

That list was topped by either death of a spouse or death of a child, can't remember which, and was followed by (in no particular order) death of a parent, death of a sibling, divorce, losing a job, major illness, bankruptcy, incarceration, auto accident, etc.

Also included were ostensibly "good" things like getting married, or birth of a child, or "neutral" things like moving house, since they can also induce stress.