Sometimes
victim comes to crave pain – very much as self-mutilators do – because it is a proof and a reminder of his individuated existence otherwise blurred by
incessant torture. Pain shields
sufferer from disintegration and capitulation. It preserves
veracity of his unthinkable and unspeakable experiences.This dual process of
victim's alienation and addiction to anguish complements
perpetrator's view of his quarry as "inhuman", or "subhuman". The torturer assumes
position of
sole authority,
exclusive fount of meaning and interpretation,
source of both evil and good.
Torture is about reprogramming
victim to succumb to an alternative exegesis of
world, proffered by
abuser. It is an act of deep, indelible, traumatic indoctrination. The abused also swallows whole and assimilates
torturer's negative view of him and often, as a result, is rendered suicidal, self-destructive, or self-defeating.
Thus, torture has no cut-off date. The sounds,
voices,
smells,
sensations reverberate long after
episode has ended – both in nightmares and in waking moments. The victim's ability to trust other people – i.e., to assume that their motives are at least rational, if not necessarily benign – has been irrevocably undermined. Social institutions are perceived as precariously poised on
verge of an ominous, Kafkaesque mutation. Nothing is either safe, or credible anymore.
Victims typically react by undulating between emotional numbing and increased arousal: insomnia, irritability, restlessness, and attention deficits. Recollections of
traumatic events intrude in
form of dreams, night terrors, flashbacks, and distressing associations.
The tortured develop compulsive rituals to fend off obsessive thoughts. Other psychological sequelae reported include cognitive impairment, reduced capacity to learn, memory disorders, sexual dysfunction, social withdrawal, inability to maintain long-term relationships, or even mere intimacy, phobias, ideas of reference and superstitions, delusions, hallucinations, psychotic microepisodes, and emotional flatness.
Depression and anxiety are very common. These are forms and manifestations of self-directed aggression. The sufferer rages at his own victimhood and resulting multiple dysfunction. He feels shamed by his new disabilities and responsible, or even guilty, somehow, for his predicament and
dire consequences borne by his nearest and dearest. His sense of self-worth and self-esteem are crippled.
In a nutshell, torture victims suffer from a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Their strong feelings of anxiety, guilt, and shame are also typical of victims of childhood abuse, domestic violence, and rape. They feel anxious because
perpetrator's behavior is seemingly arbitrary and unpredictable – or mechanically and inhumanly regular.
They feel guilty and disgraced because, to restore a semblance of order to their shattered world and a modicum of dominion over their chaotic life, they need to transform themselves into
cause of their own degradation and
accomplices of their tormentors.
The CIA, in its "Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual – 1983" (reprinted in
April 1997 issue of Harper's Magazine), summed up
theory of coercion thus:
"The purpose of all coercive techniques is to induce psychological regression in
subject by bringing a superior outside force to bear on his will to resist. Regression is basically a loss of autonomy, a reversion to an earlier behavioral level. As
subject regresses, his learned personality traits fall away in reverse chronological order. He begins to lose
capacity to carry out
highest creative activities, to deal with complex situations, or to cope with stressful interpersonal relationships or repeated frustrations."
Inevitably, in
aftermath of torture, its victims feel helpless and powerless. This loss of control over one's life and body is manifested physically in impotence, attention deficits, and insomnia. This is often exacerbated by
disbelief many torture victims encounter, especially if they are unable to produce scars, or other "objective" proof of their ordeal. Language cannot communicate such an intensely private experience as pain.
Spitz makes
following observation:
"Pain is also unsharable in that it is resistant to language... All our interior states of consciousness: emotional, perceptual, cognitive and somatic can be described as having an object in
external world... This affirms our capacity to move beyond
boundaries of our body into
external, sharable world. This is
space in which we interact and communicate with our environment. But when we explore
interior state of physical pain we find that there is no object 'out there' – no external, referential content. Pain is not of, or for, anything. Pain is. And it draws us away from
space of interaction,
sharable world, inwards. It draws us into
boundaries of our body."