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How does token materialism explain individual experiences of pain?

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Bronze bust of Epicurus with a full beard and draped clothing, displayed on a round inscribed base at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. — Materialism Epicurus, bronze bust from a Greek original, c. 280–270 bce; in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

In the context of materialism, token materialism explains individual experiences of pain by asserting that each specific episode of pain is identical to a particular physical event.1

Unlike type materialism, which attempts to identify the general phenomenon of pain with a single, universal physical state (such as the firing of C-fibers), token materialism allows for physiological diversity. It acknowledges that two different organisms—or even two different humans—might experience pain while having entirely different internal physiological structures. By focusing on the "token" (the individual instance) rather than the "type" (the general category), this view maintains that every mental phenomenon is identical to some physical phenomenon without requiring that all instances of that phenomenon share the exact same physical makeup.12

This approach provides a way for materialists to account for the subjective experience of pain while remaining consistent with the possibility that different physical systems could realize the same mental state.21