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Roseleyne Rey recognises the sociocultural dimension of pain in The History
of Pain (Harvard University Press, £25.50, ISBN 0 674 39967 6). When
Napoleon’s troops rode back into battle during the Russian campaign, some of
them having had limbs amputated, they were probably not troubled by phantom limb
pain. Also immune are the Indians who, anaesthetised by religious fervour, test
the limits of their own endurance by suspending themselves from swinging hooks.
An intriguing analysis of the evolving influences of society and culture on pain
thresholds throughout the ages.