Abstrakt
Pain is both invocation and withdrawal. The dual nature of talking about pain - on the one hand speechlessness and on the other a call for help - is culturally embedded in texts and writings.
The word schmerz (pain) will be semantically analyzed on the material basis of Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch (Early New High German Dictionary), especially regarding its linguistic paradigm and syntagmatic aspects. The analysis will reveal that talking about pain means to talk in a holistic and integral way.
As such it will become clear, that talking about pain in a pre-cartesian time led to the pursuit of giving pain a cultural meaning. The dualism of body and soul - understood as a division of inner and outer human - can be rudimentarily found in the Early New High German language.
That is why, from a contemporary perspective, the healing of pain needs to be understood as a holistic and integral duty.