History of pain

Author: (French) Rey
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: The history of pain is long, and what we do must be selective and limited. First, morality should showcase significant scientific contributions to therapies and knowledge for treating pain. Second, we must analyze the scientific and theoretical conditions that form pain theories, most of which are concentrated in France—finally, we must still focus on France. Writing a History of Pain is a risky endeavor. We can explore the relationship between the church and pain, or comment on the portrayal of pain in literary works, which provides valuable comparisons for our initial investigation. If there is an appropriate metaphor to describe this history of pain, with its different levels and varying degrees of importance, Baudelaire's poem The Wine Goblet is perhaps the most suitable. This "perfect staff" is entwined with branches and vines: straight lines and creeping patterns crisscross, all aimed at forming the theme of the history of pain. The history of pain being discovered and recognized is the history of the continuous clarification of the boundaries and content of modern medical knowledge systems, the history of the division between science and the metaphysical, and the history where individual free will remains unacknowledged. The author traces human history, examining how people in different historical stages understood, interpreted (these interpretations include religious, medical, and social), and coped with pain. The author finds that as human society progresses, humanity's understanding of pain increasingly leans toward the medical perspective. The religious significance of pain gradually fades. Examining the history of pain reveals that its discovery is the history of the continuous differentiation and clarification of boundaries between medicine (science) and religion (theology), as well as the gradual establishment of the modern medical system and discourse. In the evolution of the power dynamic between doctors and patients, the personal will of patients gradually becomes more prominent. With the complete discovery of pain, religion gradually retreats from secular life, medicine and even the modern scientific system are established and refined, individual will is highlighted, and the blueprint of modern society begins to take shape.