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Pain and salvation: Pain has, within a religious context, been seen as a route to purity and catharsis. Punishing the body for the sake of the soul is a theme found throughout Christianity.
Pain and truth: From torture to capital punishment, pain has repeatedly been inflicted on subjects as a tool of political
domination and social control.
Pain and knowledge: Medicine has had a long relationship
with pain. Operations conducted without anaesthetics, tooth
extractions, childbirth and amputation still incite profound fear.
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The scientific study of pain has attempted to correlate its perception with the anatomy of the body. Attempts to identify the mechanisms of pain were matched by efforts to prevent it. Ancient and traditional remedies to alleviate pain were in the mid-19th century joined by the revolutionary development of anaesthetics - one of the main sources of Victorian confidence in human progress. |
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As well as our own physical and emotional suffering, the cultural history of pain must also look at our varied reactions to the pain of others: indignation, fear, compassion, piety, laughter, indifference, enjoyment, sexual excitement, and so on. The pain of those who cannot speak is also important. Since Antiquity, animal pain has been linked to the acquisition of knowledge, the maintenance of health, the production of beauty and public enjoyment.
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