Galen

Galen develops a robustly aetiological approach to diagnosis and therapy which centres on the differentiation of pain perceptions throughout the body. He develops a specific definition of pain as the perception of overwhelming and contrary-to-nature change which links the perception of pain with his understanding of disease. Throughout On Affected Parts, he argues for pain terminology and descriptions that facilitate the communication of experiences and perceptions between doctor and patient. Galen promotes, in this context, a type of ‘common language’ in which familiar terminology communicates effectively the common experiences of doctor and patient: modern categories of subjective and objective language are not effective tools to help understand this complex approach to pain description. Galen’s control of language in this context is mirrored by his attempts to control his patients’ narration of pain symptoms, which moulds their experiences to fit Galen’s understanding of pain, disease, and the body.