Destroying Minds: Psychological Pain and the Crime of Torture (original) (raw)

Psychologists and torture: critical realism as a resource for analysis and training

Journal of Critical Realism, 2018

This article introduces the challenges of providing psychological assessments of people seeking asylum in the wake of their reported torture. These challenges invite professionals to consider ontology (what happened to people, physically and psychologically) and epistemology (the reports about what happened and how those reports are interpreted). Critical realism is well-positioned to underlabour for the process of understanding a human rights violation, in which the complainant is both the key, and often sole, witness and claimed victim. For instance, the layered reality of critical realism allows practitioners to use retroduction to describe deeper structures and mechanisms of torture. The judgemental rationality of critical realism allows practitioners to distinguish between competing interpretations of the evidence. Critical realism also avoids both the positivistic assumption that assessors can be value-free; and the relativist social constructionist position that, because assessors cannot avoid values, they should surrender any attempt to achieve objectivity. KEYWORDS Torture; asylum seekers; psychological formulation; human rights … any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted upon a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official … 1

“A random system”: The organisation and practice of torture rehabilitation services in Norway

Journal on Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and Prevention of Torture, 2020

Introduction: This article addresses the provision of rehabilitation services for torture victims with a refugee background in Norway. It engages the topic from the outset of relevant rehabilitation rights and duties, presenting the organisation of rehabilitation services within the Norwegian health care system, and exploring the challenges and opportunities professionals see and experience as they seek to provide adequate rehabilitation for torture victims. Methods and material: The article is based on qualitative interviews with 46 experts and practitioners that contribute to or otherwise focus on rehabilitation for torture victims in Norway, conducted between March and August 2019. Findings and discussion: Rehabilitation services for torture victims in Norway are fragmented, and the resulting practice is highly person dependent. Public services are characterised by insufficient knowledge about torture injuries and a generalised lack of familiarity with international protocols for identification, documentation and rehabilitation of torture injuries. Moreover, the quality of rehabilitation services suffers from a lack of coordination and inclusion of actors that can contribute to comprehensive rehabilitation processes. Conclusion: Individuals with a refugee background are far from guaranteed adequate rehabilitation for torture-related injuries in Norway. Rehabilitation services suffer from the absence of a systematic approach to identification and documentation, and an unclear division of responsibilities. Three recommendations are proposed in order to ensure minimum standards in rehabilitation services for this group: 1) developing and implementing a national plan of action on torture rehabilitation; 2) knowledge and capacity-building within relevant educational programmes, the national health services and other relevant public sector services; and 3) strengthening and institutionalising interdisciplinary communities of practice with specialised expertise on the topic at all relevant levels.

25 years rebuilding lives: United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture

2006

Morocco Medical and psychological 16. Kanyarwanda A.S.B.L. Rwanda Medical, psychological and social 17. Rwandan Women Community Development Network Rwanda Medical, psychological and social 18. Victimes de Violences Réhabilitées (VIVRE) Senegal Medical, social and legal 19. Community Association for Psychological Services (CAPS) Sierra Leone Psychological 20. Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) South Africa Psychological 21. African Center for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (A.C.T.V.) Uganda Medical, psychological, social, legal and financial 22. Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (F.H.R.I.) Uganda Legal 23. Refugee Law Project Uganda Psychological, social and legal Asia Nr Name of organization Country Type of assistance 24. Bangladesh Rehabilitation Centre for Trauma Victims (BRCT) Bangladesh Medical, psychological, legal, financial, training and seminar 25. Naogaon Human Rights Development Association Bangladesh Medical, psychological, social, legal, financial 26. Centre for Care of Victims of Torture (CCTV) India Medical, psychological, social, legal, training and seminar 27. People's Watch Tamil Nadu India Medical, psychological 28. Society for Social Research, Art and Culture (SOSRAC) India Medical, psychological, social, training and seminar 29. Torture Prevention Centre India Trust India Medical, psychological, social, training and seminar 30. International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) Indonesia Medical, psychological and social 31. Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) Israel Legal assistance Nr Name of organization Country Type of assistance 32. Golos Svobody Kyrgyzstan Medical, psychological, social and legal 33. Khiam Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Torture Lebanon Medical, psychological and social 34. Restart Centre Lebanon Medical, psychological, social, training and seminar 35. Gaza Community Mental Health Programme

Psychosocial Trauma , Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Torture

2004

Over the past few years, within the teams that provide medical-psychological care to people suffering from the psychic sequels of torture in our country, there has been a permanent discussion surrounding certain categories that arise from psychiatric nosography as is the case of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSDA) – that have been put forward as descriptive or interpretative models of the whole set of effects produced by this act of violence on psychic functions. Perhaps PTSD is the nosography that has been resorted to most often in order to comply with this diagnostic function, aimed at obtaining through this conceptual framework a model that in addition to the implementation of this aspect of psychiatric practice in the field of mental health and human rights, is also capable of performing the task of systematizing, encompassing and generalizing the disorder that torture and other forms of violations of the right to physical, psychic and moral integrity have on the psyche of in...

Supporting interventions after exposure to torture

Torture : quarterly journal on rehabilitation of torture victims and prevention of torture, 2010

A wide range of reactions as panic, demoralisation, feelings of being insecure and unsafe, hopelessness and any kind of dysfunction dominate after torture. The range of PTSD and other psychiatric disorders can be explained by variations in severity, frequency and duration of traumatic events. The advanced numbers of refugees and asylum seekers illustrate the need of people after the experience of torture to find a safe place for recovery. The various steps for immediate coping strategy after being tortured are evaluated. Stressors after torture, as pressure on families, decline of social and economic life, threats, feelings of guilt and shame and health problems due to torture act as remainders for the torture experience. Coping with exposure to torture starts immediately during the experience. A phase-oriented research, taking into consideration internal and external resources, risk factors and protective factors, as well as pre-trauma status, could help to understand more about th...

Cognitive-behavioral treatment of tortured asylum seekers: a case study

Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 2004

The present study examined results of cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) in a 22year-old, male, tortured asylum-seeker living in Sweden. The patient received 16 sessions of CBT involving mainly self-exposure to trauma-related cues. Clinical measures (assessor-and self-rated) were completed at pre-treatment, weeks 6, 8, 12, and 16, post-treatment and at follow-up (1-, 3-, and 6-month). Treatment led to significant improvement across all measures of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. The improvement was maintained at 6-month follow-up. The results suggest that CBT could be useful in treating tortured asylum-seekers and refugees despite the additional stressors experienced by asylum-seekers and refugees.

2004 Reconceptualizing the Sequelae of Political Torture: Limitations of a Psychiatric Paradigm

A psychiatric model of traumatization has informed most research in psychology on the effects of human rights violations, including political torture, in South Africa. This article highlights some of the limitations of a hegemonic psychiatric approach to conceptualizing current sequelae of abuse experienced by political detainees during the apartheid era. It calls attention to the relevance of the South African social and political context in which survivors are located, methodological problems that characterize psychological research on trauma in South Africa and other developing countries, and the relevance of the meaning that survivors may attribute to their experience of detention and torture.