The aim of this article is to analyze the notion of pain as passion. This point can be found not only in certain pre-Cartesian writings, but also in medical works written before today’s specializations were developed. According to these writings, pain can be seen as a specifically human passion manifested in the body and the soul. It has always been related to or mixed with pleasure, its opposite by definition. The article also presents a brief commentary on Freudian ideas about pain.
Pain; passions of the soul; history of psychopathology; drive