Schmerz, ein Symptom in unserer Kulturgeschichte.

Pain is a phenomenon whose recognition reflects historically different views of the human being. The various medical practices in the treatment of pain from antiquity and the Middle Ages to the late Enlightenment are an impressive testimony to the time of their emergence. When we look at the history of pain treatment, we have to go back at least as far as the Stone Age. This is where the palaeontological evidence of therapeutic experiments in the form of boreholes in the human skull can be found. It is very likely that this was a form of treatment for headaches, as a similar method can still be found today among African natives. The basis of this therapy was the assumption that the „evil spirit of pain“ could escape through this opening and the patient would be cured of the pain. The main aim of treating illness and pain was to expel these spirits from the body. The magical-religious understanding of pain was also present in other ancient cultures, e.g. Egyptian culture, for example the pain after an injury in battle was caused by the gods and spirits of the dead. In ancient Egypt, they believed that evil spirits entered the body through the nostrils or ears. This was directly followed by healing methods, for example in descriptions of treatments using vomiting, sneezing or urination to make the spirits leave the body. So although pain was usually seen as divine punishment, it was treated early on. Pain therapeutic endeavours through the use of opium can be traced back to the Assyrians, Sumerians and ancient Egyptians. In the following centuries of the Middle Ages, many of the findings from antiquity disappeared. Pain was largely seen as God‘s punishment for sins or as a test from God. Accordingly, healing and relief were sought primarily from God and the saints. Only the possibility of developing knowledge about the anatomical and physiological functions of the body and in particular the identification of the brain as the seat of all perception (including the perception of pain) freed pain therapy from magical historical elements. This is where the rational phase of medicine begins, focussing on expanding the development of the therapeutic possibilities of pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]