The History of Pain PDF
Preview The History of Pain
THE HISTORY OF PAIN ROSELYNE REY Translated by Louise Elliott Wallace and by A. Cadden and W. Cadden J. S. \ Boston Public library ^ ^ The History ofPain Digitized by the Internet Archive 2015 in https://archive.org/details/historyofpainOOrose The History Pain of Roselyne Rey Translated by Louise Elliott Wallace, A. Cadden, and S. W. Cadden J. Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England Copyright © 1993, Editions La Decouvertc All rights reserved Printed in the United States ol America Second printing, 1998 First published as Histoiredc laDouleur^ Paris: Editions La Decouverte, 1993 First Har\'ard University' Press paperback edition, 1998 LibraryofConpiressCatalq^ifi^-in-Publication Data Rey, Roselyne. [Histoire de la douleur. English] The history ofpain / Roselyne Rey: translated by Louise Elliott Wallace, J. A. Cadden, and S. W. Cadden. p. cm. Originallypublished: Paris: Decouverte, 1993, in series: Histoire des sciences. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-674-39967-6 (cloth) ISBN 0-674-39968-4 (pbk.) — [DNLM: 1. Pain History. 2. History ofMedicine. WL 11.1 R456h 1995a] RB127.R4913 1995 616'.0472'09—dc20 DNLM/DLC for Library ofCongress 94-31948 Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 1 Antiquity 10 2 The Middle Ages and Pain: A World to Investigate 44 3 Pain in the Renaissance 50 4 Pain in the Classical Age 71 5 Pain in the Age ofEnlightenment 89 6 The 19th Century: The Great Discoveries 132 7 Communication Strategies: The Approach to Pain during the First Halfofthe 20th Century 261 Conclusion 325 A Modern View 331 Cambier J. Notes 339 Selected Biblio£fmphy 381 Glossary 385 Index 389 ^ ^ Acknowledgments This work was conceived as a result of a convergence between my preoccupations as an historian and the interest that Daniel Le Bars — (Inserm) and Jean-Claude Wilier (Pitie-Salpetriere) showed as both — are involved in solving current problems regarding pain in gaining a better knowledge of the history ^of their particular discipline. Thanks to them, and to the small group of colleagues from the Societe fran^aise de la douleur who were concerned with this un- dertaking, a fruithil dialogue developed and has continued for sev- eral years now. I also wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude to D. Albe-Fessard who granted me a number ofinterviews which were always highly stimulating and edifying. Finally, this book would not have been possible without the competence and unstinting assis- tance of B. Molitor and R. Rivet, Head Librarians at the Bib- liotheque interuniversitaire de medecine, where I always found exceptional working conditions. ^ ^ Introduction I wandered far and wide through Cesaree this verse from . . Racine, whdch haunted Aurelien in Aragon's novel, reminds me of another phrase which is undoubtedly the remote basis of this work: ^^Omne animal, simulatque natum sit, voluptatem appetere eaquegaudcrc ut summo bono, dolorem aspernari ut summum malum et, quantum possit, a se repellere, idque facere nondum depravatum, ipsa natura m incorrupteatque inte^rejudicante,^^ otherwords, "Every living being from itsvery moment ofbirth seeks pleasure, enjoying it as the ultimate good while rejecting pain as the ultimate adversity and, insofar as is possible, doing his best to avoid it; he behaves in this fashion to the extent that he has not yet been conditioned and insofar as his basic nature has been left intact to judge naturally and with integrity." If instinct prompts people and animals alike to repel pain with all their energy, then from an historian's point ofview, the most pressing ques- tion might be to attempt to understand and trace man's long struggle with pain. However, despite his apparendy straightforward flight and fear response when confronted with pain, or perhaps precisely because ofit, pain's composite nature makes undertaking an historical analysis ofit quite problematical. The task ofdrawing up a complete history of pain does not simply entail carefully probing unexplored historical "territories," in the same sense one might delve into the history ofthe body, offood preparation, or ofclothing, with each endeavour provid- ing precious new topics ofinterest and reshuffling our analytical cate- gories and representational systems; nor does it just entail turning delib- 2 The History ofFain erately towards a history of cultural sensibilities or mores, but it does require instead that one pursue an evasive subject with a dual nature, at the crossroads between biology and cultural or social conventions. Pain is indeed certainly a combination ofcultural and social factors: it has not had the same significance throughout the ages nor in the various different civilisations; even within the framework of Western civilisation itself, the collective memory recalls various episodes or cir- cumstances where the limits ofendurance were strangely removed, or virtually obliterated. Such examples include the processions ofpenitent flagellants during the Middle Ages, Napoleon's soldiers during the Russian campaign going back into battle on horseback after having had limbs amputated, Saint-Medard's "convulsionaries" during the 18th century who chastised themselves with varied torments (live coals, red-hot branding irons, blows and bru—ising), processions of mart^TS, and the accounts ofthe lives ofmystics ''to suffer or to die," believed St. Teresa ofAvila. The examples and testimonials all reveal how man's relationship to pain is affected by his beliefs as well as by the context ofdiffering philosophical or religious backdrops. There is hardly a need to search for further examples of exotic rites of initiation or special ceremonies designed to ensure fertility or abundant harvests, such as the "swinging hooks" by which celebrants are sometimes suspended in certain regions ofIndia. It is not so much the altered meaning ofpain conferred by a society that is of interest here, but rather the conse- quences ofsuch a reintcrpretation on the individual's own experience — of pain. The different meanings attributed to pain necessary trial, — unpleasantness preceding some greater good, punishment, orfate un- doubtedly have an effect on the way the subject views it and thereby raises or lowers his resistance threshold; could this endurance capacity also be affected by moral courage and the spirit's control over the body, or a combination thereof, by establishing a state in which willpower and heroism play an important role in an individual's physiological capacit}^ to resist.^ Isn't an in-depth analysis ofpain also a means ofprobing the rela- tionship between mind and body, and of examining the dualism that somehow underlies our various ways of thinking.^ It is spontaneously evident in the opposition betweenpain,which is physical, and suffering, which can be considered moral. If we may temporarily accept the pertinence oftiiis distinction, then the briefhistorical insights presented in this book are clearly circumscribed within the field ofphysiological
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