I watched a disturbing documentary on psychological torture techniques in political prisons recently. As they described the tactics that were used to get these prisoners to break down mentally, I felt a disturbing flash of recognition in many areas. Any of these sound familiar?
- sleep deprivation – not allowing the subject to sleep
- noise flooding – subjecting prisoners to loud, unrelenting high-pitched noises, particularly while sleeping
- repeated questioning -asking the subject the same questions, over and over again
- music torture – a form of torture that involves playing annoying music incessantly
- hygiene – subject is prevented from showering on a regular basis
- isolation – removing subject from contact with peers
- humiliation – placing subjects in close contact with urine and fecal matter
- systematic reduction of choice – forcing subjects to complete the same arbitrary tasks over and over again
I will let you draw your own parallels here. Seems my mind is not working like it should . . .
(But they sure are cute. Or maybe that’s just the Stockholm Syndrome talking.)
