Why Torture Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation

333 Pages·2015·11.4 MB·English

by  Shane O’Mara

WHY TORTURE DOESN’T WORK

Why Torture Doesn’t Work
The Neuroscience of Interrogation
Shane O’Mara
Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
2015
Copyright © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
O’Mara, S. M. (Shane M.)
Why torture doesn’t work : the neuroscience of interrogation / Shane O’Mara.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-674-74390-8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Psychic trauma.
2. Psychological abuse. 3. Torture. I. Title.
RC552.T7O43 2015
616.85'21— dc23 2015015973
To Maura and Radhika,
who have enriched my life beyond anything I could have imagined;
and to my parents Mary and Rory, and my parents-in-law, Maureen and
Peter, and to all of the many members of my family, and extended family

Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
1. Torture in Modern Times. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
2. How the Brain Supports Memory and Executive Functions . . . .38
3. Can We Use Technology to Detect Deception? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4. What Do Stress and Pain Do to the Brain? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105
5. What Does Sleep Deprivation Do to the Brain? . . . . . . . . . . . .148
6. Drowning, Cooling, Heating, and Starving the Brain . . . . . . . .169
7. Why Does a Torturer Torture? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .204
8. Why Torture? Why Not Talk? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .240
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .299
Ac know ledg ments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .305
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .307

One did not know what happened inside the Ministry of Love,
but it was possible to guess: tortures, drugs, delicate instruments
that registered your ner vous reactions, gradual wearing- down by
sleeplessness and solitude and per sis tent questioning.
— George Orwell, 1984