[Consolation as medical intervention and its history of ideas]

A review of interpretations of "suffering" was presented after an etymological clarification of the term "consolation". The review begins with an examination of concepts of consolation in the early Greek and Roman antiquity continues with late Greek and Roman antiquity, the early and late Middle Ages, the epochs of Humanism and Reformation and the time after Reformation until to the present. Concerning concepts of consolation in the present the conception of the movement "Biblical Therapeutic Pastoral Care", Viktor Frankl's "Logotherapy" and Viktor Emil von Gebsattel's "Anthropologic Psychotherapy" are discussed. Finally, some essential features of general conceptions of consolation are presented.