Torture has been around for centuries and is still used today in some countries. Through the years the reasons behind torturing someone have remained the same: to extract information or a confession or for sadistic pleasure. Though there are some cases where torture is meant to bring out the best performance of a person. Most these devices are meant to kill, but the main focus will be the torture aspect of it.
The first thing that needs to be done before diving into the different ways of torturing people is to give a definition of what torture is. The United Nations Convention Against Torture defines it in this way: For the purposes of [the] Convention, the term “torture” means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on 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 or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions ("Torture").
This is the definition of torture that will be used in this paper. While it is long and covers most of what torture is, it neglects to include any acts of torture for the shear means of pleasure. It may have been left out because, like most every aspect of life now a days, pleasure should come second to business. For the sake of this paper, keep it in the back of your mind that those doing the torturing probably enjoyed every second of it deep down in their hearts.
There is one place in which one's privacy, intimacy, integrity and inviolability are guaranteed – one's body, a unique temple and a familiar territory of sensa and personal history. The torturer invades, defiles and desecrates this shrine. He does so publicly, deliberately, repeatedly and, often, sadistically and sexually, with undisguised pleasure. Hence the all-pervasive, long-lasting, and, frequently, irreversible effects and outcomes of torture (Vaknin).Torture is as much psychological as it is physical. If the victim is to survive the torture there is still the psychological torture that lingers in the mind. What affects the person varies from one to the next. The most common psychological problem is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The three main symptoms are: re-experiencing the traumatic event, avoiding reminders of the trauma, and/or increased anxiety and emotional arousal (Segal).
The Iron Maiden for all of its glory and fear that it caused, may have never truly been used during the time frame that it is said to be used in ("Medieval"). Despite this, rumors of its existence and usage still exist. In fact in 2003 there was one found Baghdad that looked like it had been used. Its nails not having the sharpness they should have had leads people to believe that it had been used (Ghosh). Leaving aside whether or not the Iron Maiden was used or not, let us focus on how it affected the victim. The victim was set inside of the maiden and then the doors to it were closed. Spikes on the inside of the maiden and on the doors would pierce the victim in non-lethal areas. There is one mention of the spikes being movable to adjust for different sizes of people (Rühling). Though it isn't the best means of interrogation, as it is said to be soundproof so neither the victim nor the interrogator can hear the other (Joax " Virgin"). Aside from the physical pain which is its main objective, the psychological pain will be left for the victim if of course they were to survive. There are at two phobias that would haunt the victim if they were to survive. The first would be claustrophobia, or the fear of enclosed spaces, from having to spend hours to perhaps a day in there. The second would be nyctophobia, or the fear of darkness, as it would be pitch black in the Iron Maiden (Fredd). For those unfortunate enough to stay in the Iron Maiden for more than several hours the end result is death. Some are so unfortunate that they may live for several days before dying.
The Interrogation Chair was mostly a psychological torture device. While it was used to torture people, it was mostly used to psych out the person that they wanted to get a confession from. They would have someone in the chair and then show the potential confessor the potential outcome if they didn't confess (Joax "Chair"). The Interrogation Chair consisted of a chair that was studded with spikes on the seat and the arm rests. In order to prevent the occupant from moving around they were strapped down along with their wrists. The chair can have as many as 500 to 1,500 spikes studded on it.
The Thumbscrews was a relatively simple device consisting of two flat pieces of wood or metal in which the fingers, thumbs, or toes were crushed. The first thumbscrews were made in Scotland in the late fourteenth century (Rühling). They were a favorite of interrogators since they were portable, so one didn't need to be used in the torture chamber ("Thumbscrews"). Unlike the Iron Maiden and the Interrogation Chair , the Thumbscrews were almost completely physically damaging. Any psychological damage caused would be from remembering the pain from the torture.
The Rack was a fearsome device. Most were a table with a crank used to stretch the body via the limbs. Some had spiked rollers along its frame to add to the pain. There are varying degrees to the torture. Each degree consisted of questioning, stretching, and a period of healing. The first degree would end when the shoulders became dislocated. The second degree consisted of the shoulders dislocating again, this time faster than the first, and then the rest of the joints, the knees, hips, and elbows, would then become dislocated. The third degree would separate the joints in the body, those being between the vertebrae. Paralysis and even death are highly likely at this point (Rühling). Like the thumbscrews, the rack was all physical pain. Those that survived the rack would forever live their lives with the risk of their joints popping out of place.
The Wheel was a simple torture device. One way of torturing the victim was to lay the wheel horizontally on the ground, its spokes would serve as a frame for the victim. The torturer would then take an iron bar and break the bones of the extremities. The spokes would keep the limbs above the ground, making it easier for the torturer to break the bones. Another method of using the wheel was a bludgeoning device, the rim would be surrounded by shovel-like protrusions (Rühling). The wheel was a physical torture device. Those that survived would have broken bones that would heal improperly.
"The Ducking Stool," as it is referred to in Infernal Device: Machinery of Torture and Execution, was mainly used on witches. It was made up of a chair that was lowered and raised via a fulcrum and beam. The basic idea was to dunk the victim in water, be it a river, lake, or if need be the town well, or a cesspool and then raise them out of it in the hopes for a confession (Rühling).
While there are many more medieval torture devices, let us shift our focus on some of the modern ones. Some of the modern torture, or as it is now known as "enhanced iterrogation," devices that are used, and some still in use, within the last hundred years are the Tiger Bench, Hell Confinement, The Tucker Telephone, The Cold Cell, The White Torture, and Waterboarding.
The Tiger Bench is a relatively simple torture device. The victim is placed on a long bench and is tied to a board in order to keep them sitting up right. Their legs are also tied to the bench. Bricks are then placed under the legs until either the straps break or the legs break (Gibson).
The Hell Confinement has a metal rod that presses against the back of the victim. There are also handcuffs and foot shackles that are linked to the metal rod. This makes it nearly impossible for the victim to eat, use the toilet, or sit (Gibson).
In the 1960s doctors began using electrocution on unruly prisoners in at the Tucker State Prison Farm in Arkansas. It was a very simple form of electrocution, the ground wire would be wrapped around the prisoner's big toe, while the hot wire was wrapped around the genitals of the prisoner. This was all done with a modified telephone that the prison had. Once cranked, the electricity would go from the ground wire to the hot wire. Sometimes this was done multiple times. It was banned a decade later (Gibson).
The CIA has six different interrogation techniques that they are allowed to use, one of them is the Cold Cell. The basic principle of it is to set someone in a room and blast the AC for however long the interrogator needs. It was first used in 1961 on civil rights activists. The longest known time for this torture was four years (Gibson).
The White Room is a very simple way of torturing someone. You place the victim, who is wearing white clothing, in a white room (hence the name) with no windows and white light producing light bulbs. The victim is fed white rice on a white plate. If they need to use the restroom they need to slip a white piece of paper under the door. The guards, which are wearing footwear to muffle the sound of their footsteps, would then take them to the restroom. This form of torture is all psychological based. The lack of sound and color would eventual eat away at the victims mind (Gibson).
Waterboarding sounds like a fun sport at first but it is a torture method that has been used throughout the centuries. In order to waterboard someone, the victim must be tilted back. Water is then poured into the upturned mouth or nose. Eventually the victim can't exhale more air or cough out more water. The lungs collapse and the sinuses and trachea have filled with water. The chest and lungs are kept higher than the head so that coughing draws water up and into the lungs while avoiding total suffocation ("Waterboarding"). The victim would most likely become hydrophobic due to the immense amount of water that they may have been forced to swallow or intake (Fredd). Thanks to President Obama, waterboarding is no longer a viable means of extracting information from someone (Cafferty).
The question that is on most people's minds is, "should enhanced interrogation be allowed for usage?" A lot of people are on the fence about it. A common question is, "if lives are on the balance, is it all right to use such methods?" The answer most people would then give is, "yes."
Torture has been around for centuries and probably will be around for several more. Until we as human beings can stop things like war and crime it will continue to be around. Even if we stop those things torture for sadistic pleasure will probably still linger in the shadows.