The word “pain” comes from the Latin word poena which also means punishment. So there is nothing new in the association of these two ideas. The child is educated to a complicated system of values and behaviour which allows him to take his place in society. This is achieved primarily by the process of reward and punishment. Love and physical rewards are given for being good; and hostility and physical punishment for being bad. This is the learning process in its simplest form, and as a means of leading the child to acceptable behaviour it is very effective. However, the constant association of pain with punishment conditions us to lose sight of the biological

purpose of pain as a simple and helpful warning against injury. The child is constantly reminded of this association so that it persists into adult life. If in fact corporal punishment is not inflicted, the threat of it is usually still there, and even if it is not actually threatened it is referred to obliquely, “If you had been properly punished when you were younger, this would not have happened.” This is the child’s ordinary experience, so the two ideas, pain and punishment, become fused together in his mind.

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