392 RüdigerKunow
The "expressions" coming from other people must necessarily rely
on available semantic registers, and thus can never afford unassailable
certainty about what is going on inside their bodies, except for
conveyingthattheywantorneedsomethingfromme:
"I know you are in pain" is not an expression of certainty; it is an
expressionofsympathy.("Iknowwhatyouaregoingthrough;""Ihave
done all I can; " "The serum is being flown in by special plane.") But
whyissympathyexpressedinthisway?Becauseyoursufferingmakesa
claimonme.ItisnotenoughthatIknow(amcertain)thatyousuffer...
I must acknowledge it, otherwise I do not know what "(your or his)
beinginpain"means.(We263)Cavellauthorizesustothinkthattherepresentationofpain,however
inchoate,isnotjustarepresentationbutatoneandthesametimealsoa
request. It solicits behavior appropriate to the demand made and in this
way generates a community between the sufferer and the other person.
This community is certainly provisional and bound to the respective
situational context. At the same time, the premium placed in many
different cultures on gestures of sympathy and of aid given in moments
of anguish—the story of the Good Samarian (Luke 10:25-37) being
among those that come to mind here—is an indication of the utopian
desires generated in such moments. Even while such gestures can do
littletoalleviatethephysicalpain,recognitionoftheotherperson'spain
can do what Axel Honneth writes is the essence of intersubjective
recognition processes, namely "affective approval or encouragement"
(Re cognition95).
In order to dwell a bit longer on questions of community and
communication in the context of pain, I will shift gears and turn to a
performativerepresentationofpainthatispartoftheculturalheritageof
the West, Sophocles' dramaΦιλοκτετης/Philoctetes.^87 The play, first
putonstageintheyear409B.C.E.,canbeputindialoguewithCavell's
communicative understanding of pain representation. The play'sfabula
(^87) Critics have noted that Sophocles' dramatic treatment of pain was no
exception at that time; there was "an almost visceral kind of attraction" which
thatbodilyconditionexercisedontheGreeks(Budelmann444-45).