they showed me visions of my "past" and said "this is what you want"
the joke of it is, I didn't want to relive my past....I found my past
considerably disinteresting. The only thing to do is move on, I kept
thinking. They never heard. They showed me faces and voices of
people, trying to get me to interact (but mostly feel) as I would've
but I knew it was all fake....all like some foggy interpretation of
glyphs on ancient pottery...."oh" they said "THIS is what this meant to you"
but it didn't....I thought, "you'd think a race of "superior beings" would
knock off the crap....or at least stop making reallly bad guesses"
the joke of it is, I didn't want to relive my past....I found my past
considerably disinteresting. The only thing to do is move on, I kept
thinking. They never heard. They showed me faces and voices of
people, trying to get me to interact (but mostly feel) as I would've
but I knew it was all fake....all like some foggy interpretation of
glyphs on ancient pottery...."oh" they said "THIS is what this meant to you"
but it didn't....I thought, "you'd think a race of "superior beings" would
knock off the crap....or at least stop making reallly bad guesses"
.......................................................................................................................................................................
Incrimination of innocent people
One well documented effect of torture is that with rare exceptions people will say or do anything to escape the situation, including untrue "confessions" and implication of others without genuine knowledge, who may well then be tortured in turn. There are rare exceptions, such as F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, G.C., who refused to provide information under torture.
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Secrecy/publicity
Depending on the culture, torture has at times been carried on in silence (official denial), semi-silence (known but not spoken about) or openly acknowledged in public (in order to instill fear and obedience).
Since torture is in general not accepted in modern times, professional torturers in some countries tend to use techniques such as electrical shock, asphyxiation, heat, cold, noise, and sleep deprivation which leave little evidence, although in other contexts torture frequently results in (pinball) horrific mutilation or death. Evidence of torture also comes from testimony of witnesses and from breaches of discipline as for example, the untrained and indiscreet amateur photographers of Abu Ghraib prison.
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Motivation to torture
It was long thought that "good" people would not torture and only "bad" ones would, under normal circumstances. Research over the past 50 years suggests a disquieting alternative view, that under the right circumstances and with the appropriate encouragement and setting, most people can be encouraged to actively torture others. Stages of torture mentality include:
Reluctant or peripheral participation
Official encouragement: As the Stanford prison experiment and Milgram experiment show, many people will follow the direction of an authority figure (such as a superior officer) in an official setting (especially if presented as a compulsory obligation), even if they have personal uncertainty. The main motivations for this appear to be fear of loss of status or respect, and the desire to be seen as a "good citizen" or "good subordinate".
Peer encouragement: to accept torture as necessary, acceptable or deserved, or to comply from a wish to not reject peer group beliefs. At worst this leads to competition between torturers to produce more pain or harsher results.
Dehumanization: seeing victims as objects of curiosity and experimentation, where pain becomes just another test to see how it affects the victim.
Disinhibition: socio-cultural and situational pressures may cause torturers to undergo a lessening of moral inhibitions and as a result act in ways not normally countenanced by law, custom and conscience.
Organisationally, like many other procedures, once torture becomes established as part of internally acceptable norms under certain circumstances, its use often becomes institutionalised and self-perpetuating over time, as what was once used exceptionally for perceived necessity finds more reasons claimed to justify wider use.
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Medical torture
Main article: Medical torture
At times, medicine and medical practitioners have been drawn into the ranks of torturers, either to judge what victims can endure, to apply treatments which will enhance torture, or as torturers in their own right. A famous example of the latter is Dr. Josef Mengele, known then by inmates of Auschwitz as the "Angel of Death".
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Effects of torture
Organizations like the Medical Foundation for Care of Victims of Torture try to help survivors of torture obtain medical treatment and to gain forensic medical evidence to obtain political asylum in a safe country and/or to prosecute the perpetrators.
Torture is often difficult to prove, particularly when some time has passed between the event and a medical examination. Many torturers around the world use methods designed to have a maximum psychological impact while leaving only minimal physical traces. Medical and Human Rights Organizations worldwide have collaborated to produce the Istanbul Protocol, a document designed to outline common torture methods, consequences of torture and medico-legal examination techniques.
Torture often leads to lasting mental and physical health problems.
Physical problems can be wide-ranging, e.g. sexually transmitted diseases, musculo-skeletal problems, brain injury, post-traumatic epilepsy and dementia or chronic pain syndromes.
Mental health problems are equally wide-ranging; common are post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety disorder.
Treatment of torture-related medical problems might require a wide range of expertise and often specialized experience. Common treatments are psychotropic medication, e.g. SSRI antidepressants, counseling, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, family systems therapy and physiotherapy.
Main article, see Psychology of torture for psychological impact, and aftermath, of torture.
Tucker telephone
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The Tucker Telephone is a torture device designed using parts from a old-fashioned crank telephone. The electric generator of the telephone is wired in sequence to two batteries so that the instrument can be used to administer electric shocks to another person. The Tucker Telephone was invented by a trustee who acted as the "resident physician" at the Tucker State Prison Farm, Arkansas, in the 1960s.
Perpetrators often attempt to justify their acts of torture and ill-treatment by the need to gather information. Such conceptualizations obscure the purpose of torture and its intended consequences. One of the central aims of torture is to reduce the individual to a position of extreme helplessness and distress that can lead to a deterioration of cognitive, emotional and behavioral functions. Thus, torture can be a means of attacking the individual's fundamental modes of psychological and social functioning. Under such circumstances,the torturer strives not only for physical incapacitation of the victim, but for the disintegration of the individual's personality: The torturer attempts to destroy the victim's sense of being grounded in a family and society as a human being with dreams, hopes and aspirations for the future. By dehumanizing and breaking the will of their victims, torturers set horrific examples for those who come in contact with the victim. In this way, torture can break or damage the will and coherence of entire communities. In addition, torture can profoundly damage intimate relationships between spouses, parents, children and other family members, and relationships between the victims and their communities.
causing a wide range of physical and psychological suffering.
