Table Of ContentTHE
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
