How Does Torture Affect The Brain

In the first place, putting someone through the experience of being tortured can cause them to be left with long-term damage both physically and mentally. These victims are isolated from society and kept prisoners, the kind of torture they are often put through is unbearable. In the article, The Lingering Effects of Torture written by Devin Powell talks about a man by the alias Adeel who was a prisoner for four years, first at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility in Afghanistan and then at Guantanamo Bay. Adeel explains how he was kept isolated in a chilled cell, blasted with loud music which prevented him from falling asleep and being forced to stand motionless in the hot sun for hours. And how even years after being released he still

Traumatic events often threaten the effectiveness of the brain’s ability to function correctly in everyday life. Events of the sort can become harmful to the brain, which, in turn, negatively affects the body. Trauma can be defined as a deeply distressing, upsetting, or disturbing experience (Collins English Dictionary). At least 70 percent of Americans have suffered through a traumatic event in their lifetime, although, around only 20 percent of them have developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in which a person suffers in response to a traumatic event for a prolonged period (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Fact Sheet”). This paper will address the longevity of these effects on the brain as well as the effects on the physical well-being of the body and seeking to which aspect proves to be more harmful overall.

Torture has been practised for several centuries. Whether it was the Iron maiden or waterboarding, its goal, inducing pain on a certain victim, has stayed the same. Despite all of our social advancements, this heinous and barbaric act is continually defended and justified. Torture is a crime against all living things and should never be practised.

Childhood maltreatment is a prevalent problem through out the world. As a child grows and matures the brain continues to develop according its experiences. During this time sensitive periods of development for different areas of the brain. A few areas that are of interest are the stress-influenced areas, which are at an increased risk for developmental problems when exposed to maltreatment. The extra stress from such exposures can influence abnormalities throughout the brain, which have been linked to structure changes with in the corpus callosum, anterior cingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal, orbitofrontal cortex, and hippocampus, amygdala, and cerebellum, as well as changes to stress related hormone systems. These structural changes are associated with an increased risk of psychopathology and other life long educational and physiological risk.

David Figueroa Eng. 101A Professor Stern 4/20/15 Final draft In conclusion, in discussions of torture, one controversial issue has been on the use of it. On one hand, the people against torture argue that it is cruel and unusual punishment. On the other hand, those for torture argue that it should be used for the greater good. Others even maintain that under extreme circumstances, it may be admissible if it can save American lives. My own view is that no one should be subjected to cruel punishment because it is not only illegal, unreliable, ineffective, time consuming, it also has too many flaws that could potentially ruin innocent lives. The definition of torture is any act, whether physical or emotional, or maybe both, is intentionally subjected to a specific individual or a group for many reasons. Most of these reasons that torture is administered is for extracting information from an individual or just for punishing him/her for a crime that he/she has committed or is suspected of committing. The use of torture can be used to intimidate a person to give information that may be beneficial for a nation. The use of torture has been used for many centuries. The purposes of using torture have changed over the years as well as the methods in which a person is tortured. One crucial piece that has been established that separates us human beings from barbarians is the prohibition of using torture. There are many reasons why torture has been deemed a crime now in society. There are

Torture is something that is known as wrong internationally. Torture is “deliberate, systematic or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more persons acting on the orders of authority, to force a person to yield information, to confess, or any other reason” (World Medical Association, 1975, pg.1). There is a general consensus that there is a right to be free from any kind of torture as it can be found in many different human rights treaties around the world. The treaties show that all of the thoughts about torture are pointing away from the right to torture someone no matter what the case

The War on Terror has produced several different viewpoints on the utilization of torture and its effectiveness as a means to elicit information. A main argument has been supplied that torture is ineffective in its purpose to gather information from the victim. The usefulness of torture has been questioned because prisoners might use false information to elude their torturers, which has occurred in previous cases of torture. It has also been supposed that torture is necessary in order to use the information to save many lives. Torture has been compared to civil disobedience. In addition, the argument has been raised that torture is immoral and inhumane. Lastly, Some say that the acts are not even regarded as torture.

Prompted by this phenomenon, Stanley Milgram investigates this “potent impulse overriding training in ethics, sympathy, and moral conduct.” (Milgram 314) Milgram set up an experiment in which he intended “to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist.” (Milgram 314) Thereby, observations could be made of how long a person would continue to inflict pain. “To extricate himself from this plight, the subject must make a clear break with authority.” (Milgram 315) The basic premise of the study being to learn how an ordinary person reacts when put under pressure to cause great physical harm to a stranger through a series of simulated electrical shocks. However, the subjects are under the impression that they were participating in a study of memory and learning. This is where Diana Baumrind takes issue with Milgram’s study. She feels that “by volunteering, the subject agrees implicitly to assume a posture of trust and obedience.” (Baumrind 326) Basically, Baumrind feels that the setting of a fairly innocuous sounding experiment in a safe, controlled environment of a lab causes the subject to have a false sense of safety in the experimenter’s experience. Therefore, the experiments are prone to produce skewed results, as well as potential psychological injury to the subject. Later analysis of

One way this can be shown is through Ivan Pavlov’s tests on animals all exhibit symptoms of a nervous breakdown when put under prolonged physical and mental stress. “If the stress to which he is subjected is sufficiently

Not only can torture do cruel things to the person receiving the affliction, but it can also affect the torturer. When a person gives torture, it damages the humanity of them, which means they will never be the same person again. When torture is used, the victim is treated as a “thing” rather than a person. The receiver is basically dehumanized to achieve the desires of the torturer. Although torture can be used to discover new information, it does not always work that way. Torture can cause inaccurate information to be provided due to the want for the torture to be finished with. In some cases, torture is not the

From the perspective of someone like Kant who believes that morality is absolute and torture is wrong, then it is never acceptable no matter what the consequences. Kant would argue that it is better to allow a 'ticking bomb' to go off and kill thousands by not using torture than to willingly torture someone, because as mere mortals we can never know for certain what the ultimate results of our actions will be - there may not be a bomb at all, or the man you have may not be the one who set it, or someone else may disarm it - but we can be certain of our intent, and thus we should never act with evil intent, which wilful torture certainly is.

The traumatic stressors also result in the over arousal of the limbic system, and this persistent arousal leads to undeveloped cortex, poor emotion regulation and poor cognitive skills. With the help of the

Includes in-vivo, imaginal, or narrative (oral and/or written) exposures to traumatic memories, situations, or stimuli. These therapies also generally include elements of cognitive restructuring (e.g., evaluating the accuracy of beliefs about danger) as well as relaxation techniques.

Individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress are accustomed to high levels of stress from the initial traumatic. This trauma continues to live in an individual through nightmares and flashbacks. Many individuals who have tolerated post-traumatic stress suffer from memory loss and other brain related changes. According to Moyer (2016), the hippocampal size in the brain has been shown to have an inverse relationship to the duration of PTSD symptoms; chronic stress conditions might continue to damage the hippocampus even after the initial trauma. Moyer (2016) also states that aside from increased stress caused by PTSD symptoms, a lack of control of cortisol levels might cause further damage to the brain, resulting in increased brain changes

Many of these well documented effects include but are not limited to, mental and physical illness on individuals who were never plagued with such condition, “disruption in their emotional processes”(Corcoran. 3), and “symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder.” (Corcoran. 4) Doesn’t that not sound like torture to you? Criminals are sent to prison to be incapacitated and rehabilitated, not to be isolated and tortured. Inmates are given prison or jail sentences, not torture sentences.