Coping with pain
I have a question about the body's coping mechanism and how it might have changed through medical advances and changes to lifestyle in the past couple of centuries. I'm mindful of the legend of Uxbridge casually chatting away as his leg was being hacked off, and even this has been mythologised, it seems that people coped on a daily basis with all kinds of horrendous injuries and illnesses, amputations and probing of wounds for musket balls, and then a long recovery, without any real pain relief other than grog, if they were lucky. Were people better equipped mentally or physiologically to be more resilient to pain? And fear of pain? Dental procedures don't even bear thinking about. I don't think I could have lasted thirty seconds in that world. Thanks to any one who might care to opine.
"'Tis but a scratch"