August 1997
Volume 61 |
Number 8
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TO THE MEMBERSHIP
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| Pain Management
and the Shaman |
"In the cuneiform writing on a clay tablet from Nippur is
the prayer of a king's daughter in Babylon. After thousands of
years, the woman's anguished appeal, the first known record of
the kind, reaches our ears: 'Pain has seized my body. May God
tear this pain out.'"
The above passage was uncovered and translated during an archeological
dig. It heralds perhaps the earliest reference to the sheer terror
of pain. Among the early theories on the origin of pain was that
a demon had invaded the body of the victim. Thus, a medicine man
or shaman was called upon to confront the demon and drive it away.
As a last ditch effort, the shaman might be induced to cudgel
the unfortunate patient in an effort to drive the demon out of
the body.
Fortunately, with the passage of time, scientific progress has
brought us to the Age of Enlightenment and the advent of the pain
management specialist who has obviated the shaman's exorcism by
more scientific means.
The specialty of pain management and its legitimate practitioners,
however, must strive to remove the few remaining shamans who have
substituted the needle for the club.
Erwin Lear, M.D.
Editor
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