The History of Pain

Roselyne Rey's History of Pain is probably the most comprehensive academic history of all things related to physical pain. Still, Rey's work, originally published in French, is thorough but uses almost exclusively French language resources. Rey is one of the few historians who examined the work going on at the Pneumatic Institution and rightly concluded that these early experiments and treatments with gases were fundamentally different from explorations into the character and problems of pain. Rey also points out that some of the reasons generally presented by the clinician historians for the so-called delayed adoption of anesthesia (purification, dosage, and duration of administration) were not in any way historically causing the delay. She emphases the idea that these technical issues were resolved not just when medical practitioners viewed them as problems to be remedied, but when society as a whole was able to resolve the issue of problematic invasive surgical procedures. Rey's work is extensive, covering antiquity to the 20th century and examining anesthesia, opiates and other drugs, and ways of communicating pain.