A Question of Torture Blog 1: Two Thousand Years of Torture

In the first Chapter, Two Thousand Years of Torture, of the book “A Question of Torture”, the author Alfred W. McCoy gets into the history of the use of torture and interrogation around the world. A main topic in this chapter is how the CIA’s perfection of psychological torture was a major scientific turning point. The author states, “ For more than two thousand years, interrogations had found that mere physical pain, no matter how extreme, often produced heightened resistance.” So once the CIA developed psychological torture, they fused two methods together; sensory disorientation and self-inflicted pain. This causes the victims to feel responsible for their sufferings and give in easier to their torturers. The idea of sensory disorientation and self-inflicted pain might sound like a great way for the CIA to interrogate people, but these two techniques create physical and psychological trauma for the person who is getting tortured. This really caught my attention because even though the CIA had brought up this new method of torture that seemed to get the job done, was it humane to use these techniques against somebody? Is it wrong to push somebody that far to protect the United States? I really started to think about those questions after I read that part of the chapter. The author also discusses how torture started across the world. The church banned torture in 866 and trial by ordeal in 1215. Then it was revived in the 13^th century and Europe abolished it in the 1800’s. After World War One, torture started to spread again and the French tortured hundreds of thousands in the Algerian War. Learning about all the history of torture, it really brought questions to my mind about where and when torture should be allowed. This chapter really got me excited to read on in the book to learn more about torture and see how it really affects people.