White torture
The term white torture encompasses those torture methods that are difficult to prove or demonstrate in terms of their application and direct effect, but attack the psyche or the body of the torture victim and sometimes permanently damage or destroy it. The euphemism clean torture is used synonymously .
White torture does not work with the use of physical force (e.g. beatings, strong "electric shocks" from electric shockers or other devices , mutilations ) that leaves visible traces, but with means that primarily affect the victim's psyche . Transitions to violence against the body of the tortured person are sometimes fluid.
White torture existed under the Bush administration during the war on terror in the form of "enhanced interrogation methods . "
Methods
Methods of white torture include sleep deprivation , stimulus deprivation ( e.g. dark detention or long stay in a camera silens ) and mock executions .
Other methods are oxygen deficiency torture and waterboarding , long-term standing in a tense posture (in which the victim suffers pain due to the unnatural duration of the muscle tension or strain that he is supposed to experience as being caused by himself), tickling , making people feel sick Kinetosis as well as generally degrading and incapacitating treatment: nudity , deliberate neglect, desire for total submission, treatment as sick or disturbed, violation of the feeling of shame as so-called shame torture and provoked disorientation, e.g. B. by fixation / restraint on a three-dimensionally adjustable swivel chair.
Another common and well-known method of white torture is so-called solitary confinement , in which the victim is largely relieved of social needs (including interpersonal communication , information and emotional affection) within a prison or a similar facility through methods and forms of social isolation and sensory deprivation ) and substantially necessary organic - sensory sensations (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch) (cut depriviert is). Among other things, it causes considerable impairment of the functionality of the autonomic nervous system as well as perception and cognitive performance and aims to destroy the psychological balance in order to force the prisoner to confess, to cooperate with his torturers or to destroy him psychologically.
In the smooth transition to physically damaging torture, u. a. The following methods are used: shaking (see physical damage / death consequences already described here similar to those of the shaking trauma ), conscious hypothermia or overheating in the prisoner's room (see dehydration syndrome), exposure of the prisoners to deafening noise (see hearing damage such as permanent noises in the ears and objectifiable hearing loss ).
Documentation
- 2007: Taxi to the Dark Side
- 2008: Standard Operating Procedure
See also
literature
- Rainer Mausfeld : Torture for the Fatherland. About the contributions of psychology to the development of "white torture" technicians . April 2009.
- Rainer Mausfeld: Torture without a trace. Psychology in the service of the "fight against terrorism". (Full text), In: Wissenschaft & Frieden, 2010, Issue 1: Intellectuals and War, pages 16–19.
- Metin Başoğlu, Maria Livanou: Torture vs Other Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment. Is the Distinction Real or Apparent? (Full text), Archives of General Psychiatry , 2007; 64: 277-285 (English)
- Horst Herrmann : The torture. An encyclopedia of horror. Frankfurt a. M. 2004, ISBN 3-8218-3951-1 .
- Alfred W. McCoy : Torture and let torture. 50 years of torture research and practice by the CIA and the US military . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt 2005, ISBN 3-86150-729-3 .
- Angelika Birck , Christian Pross, Johan Lansen (eds.): The Unspeakable - Working with Traumatized People in the Treatment Center for Torture Victims Berlin . Springer, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-540-43856-4 .
- Peter Nowak , Gülten Sesen, Martin Beckmann (eds.): When the body is alive - From Stammheim to the F-type cells. The prison system and prisoner resistance in Turkey . Unrast Verlag, Münster 2001, ISBN 3-89771-008-0 .
