Pain clinic–he first encountered this term two decades ago. This is how Adolf Muschg began the lecture. His first impulse had been relief. Because, finally, school medicine had conceded that the "unsightly" fraction of the sufferers existed, a fraction to which it had partially denied its right to health. Muschg recognised in this fact that in the meantime acceptance had arisen for the expression of pain. To that extent, one might speak of a right to pain, even if the notion itself was an absurdity.

The charity to formulate more generally

Yet, how, as a personal, extremely formative phenomenon, is one to broach the subject of pain? Although an insufficiency of language existed, the author said that some have the charity to formulate the misery more generally. Muschg used Goethe to illustrate this. The German prince of poets first turned his attention to the "how" of pain and then to the "what". In Tasso's line: "God gave me the gift to say how I suffer", the "how" changes to a "what" by the time he came to write the Marienbad Elegy.

But not everyone reached the naming of the causes of pain, such as physical decay. In his excursion along the literary road of pain Muschg mentioned Rainer Maria Rilke. In his final poem Rilke wrote "Come thou, thou last one, whom I recognise, unbearable pain throughout this body's fabric" . Even though this extreme poem was somewhat weak, for the Swiss author it demonstrates an important characteristic: it is ambiguous. It remained unclear whether Rilke admits the pain or whether he ultimately fought it.

Mourning rituals in mundane societies, too

Starting with this scintillating testimony Muschg continued his lecture with an appeal for an uncompromising ambiguity of art. Because art did not know what was true, but it did know what was untrue, namely the unambiguous. The author did not only confer on art a special access to truth, but also granted it a vital function: It enabled human beings to endure nature. Because nature knew nothing of idyll or transcendence. This is why culture was necessary.

Pleading for the uncompromising ambiguity of art: author Adolf Muschg giving his lecture on "The right to pain". large

Suffering caused by nature's indifference findsa culmination in death. Here, according to Muschg, the right to pain shows itself in all cultures. Although pain did not represent a consumer good, even today's mundane societies demonstrated a continuing need for mourning rituals. Pain was also the shape in which the meaning of life becomes more obvious. Thereby art could definately act as an intermediary.

Composure despite pain

In his expositions Adolf Muschg also touched on the controversies surrounding the appropriate portrayal of pain in art. He mentioned Lessing, among others, who was of the opinion that the mere hint of pain was sufficient, as in this way the freedom of the beholder was less curtailed.

If, at the end, as a listener one reflected on how Adolf Muschg's presentation of pain had come across, a particular part of the lecture sprung to mind. It was where Muschg had mentioned a visit to the Berlin "Antikenmuseum". Pain is a frequent theme in the Greek rooms of the exhibition. Nonetheless, one leaves the room with composure due to its artistic beauty, even though it might not have lessened the pain.