When my father was three years old, he followed his older sisters and parents up the steps of a house. On the porch was a large German shepherd, and he happily reached out to pet the dear puppy. He told me that the last words he heard before the huge jaws closed on his face was nine-year-old Byrd saying, “Don’t pet him, William.” Fast forward to old Doc Fisher’s office for stitches in his lacerated lip. Doc Fisher had no anesthetic to offer, just a firm grip, and he said gruffly, “hold still, boy,” before commencing to sew.

What is the nature of pain? Do people suffer more, or less, when their threshold of pain is indulged a bit more than in the above example? I recall at the tender of nineteen going to get all four of my wisdom teeth removed. I was offered the option to go for full sedation and I took it happily. And yet, the next day, with four bleeding holes in my jaws, I dragged myself into my waitress job. I heard more than one remark about “chipmunk cheeks” that day, and when the boss chewed me out for being slow, I melted into tears. Not sure why I went in. I was pathologically afraid of getting fired, so maybe that was it.

Dentistry is one example where anesthetic is obviously a boon. But do we need to numb the area where the shot is going to go in? Once when I was about twelve years old, I got my thumb slammed in a car door. It hurt and I howled, but there was no severe damage. The door did not actually latch, just bounced off my thumb. An adult in the group tried to give me four aspirin. I said I only wanted two, and he stared at me with contempt. “So, you would like to keep some of the pain, huh?” he said.

Of course, there are all sorts of ways to mask or muffle pain, both emotional and physical, and everybody knows that many of these can lead to unintended consequences. 

In thinking about this topic, I am reminded of the marshmallow test. A group of toddlers were told that they could have one marshmallow now or wait fifteen minutes and have two marshmallows. A longitudinal study of these children showed that those who could defer gratification in expectation of a larger reward had a much easier time navigating the pitfalls of life with its many temptations and disappointments. I wonder if the same might be true of people who don’t mind keeping some of the pain.