Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-rvxtl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-15T16:28:14.077Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Psychological Sequelae of Torture

A Descriptive Model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Stuart Turner  and
Caroline Gorst-Unsworth
Stuart Turner*
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine, Wolfson Building, Middlesex Hospital, London W1N 8AA, and Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture
Caroline Gorst-Unsworth
Affiliation:
Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, 96–98 Grafton Road, London NW5 3EJ, and University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
*
∗Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Torture is one of the most important preventable causes of psychological morbidity. Amnesty International (1987) has reported the use of “brutal torture and ill-treatment” in over 90 countries in the 1980s. In some countries torture has been applied on such a widespread scale and in such an arbitrary manner that whole populations are affected. In Kampuchea under the Pol Pot regime, for example, genocide and torture took place on a massive scale; indeed, merely wearing spectacles became for many a capital offence (Amnesty International, 1983). Similar reports abound from many other countries and regions.

Type
Annotation
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 157 , Issue 4 , October 1990 , pp. 475 - 480
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Abildgaard, U., Daugaard, G., Marcussen, H. et al (1984) Chronic organic psycho-syndrome in Greek torture victims.Google Scholar
Danish Medical Bulletin, 31, 239–242.Google Scholar
Allodi, F. (1980) The psychiatric effects in children and families of victims of political persecution and torture. Danish Medical Bulletin, 27, 229–232.Google Scholar
Allodi, F. & Cowgill, G. (1982) Ethical and psychiatric aspects of torture. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 27, 98–102.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM–III–R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Amnesty International (1983) Political Killings by Governments. London: Amnesty International Publications.Google Scholar
Amnesty International (1987) Amnesty International Report 1987. London: Amnesty International Publications.Google Scholar
Argentina's National Commission on Disappeared People (1986) Nunca Mas (Never Again). London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Askevold, F. (1980) The war sailor syndrome. Danish Medical Bulletin, 27, 220–223.Google Scholar
Basoglu, M. & Marks, I. (1988) Torture; research needed into how to help those who have been tortured. British Medical Journal, 297, 1423–1424.Google Scholar
Bendfeldt—Zachrisson, F. (1985) State (political) torture: some general, psychological and particular aspects. International Journal of Health Services, 15, 339–349.Google Scholar
Bergmann, M. S. & Jucovy, M. E. (eds) (1982) Generations of the Holocaust. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Boehnlein, J. K., Kinzie, J. D., Ben, R. et al (1985) One-year follow-up study of posttraumatic stress disorder among survivors of Cambodian concentration camps. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 956–959.Google Scholar
Brett, E. A. & Ostroff, R. (1985) Imagery and posttraumatic stress disorder: an overview. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 417–424.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978) Social Origins of Depression. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Cathcart, L. M., Berger, P. & Knazan, B. (1979) Medical examination of torture victims applying for refugee status. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 121, 179–184.Google Scholar
Cienfuegos, A. J. & Monelli, C. (1983) The testimony of political repression as a therapeutic instrument. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 53, 43–51.Google Scholar
Cohn, J., Holzer, K. I. M., Koch, L., et al (1980) Children and torture. Danish Medical Bulletin, 27, 238–239.Google Scholar
Cohn, J., Danielsen, L., Holzer, K. I. M., et al (1985) A study of Chilean refugee children in Denmark. Lancet, ii, 437–438.Google Scholar
Goldfeld, A. E., Mollica, R. F., Pesavento, B. H., et al (1988) The physical and psychological sequelae of torture. Journal of the American Medical Association, 259, 2725–2729.Google Scholar
Gordon, E. & Mant, A. M. (1984) Examination of a teacher from El Salvador. Lancet, i, 213–214.Google Scholar
Horowitz, M. J. (1976) Stress Response Syndromes. New York: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar
Kinzie, J. D., Fredrickson, R. H., Ben, R., et al (1984) Posttraumatic stress disorder among survivors of Cambodian concentration camps. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 645–650.Google Scholar
Krystal, H. & Niederland, W. G. (eds) (1971) Psychic Traumatization. After Effects in Individuals and Communities. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.Google Scholar
Levi, P. (1987) If This is a Man; The Truce. London: Sphere Books.Google Scholar
Lishman, W. A. (1987) Organic Psychiatry. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.Google Scholar
Lunde, I., Rasmussen, O. V., Wagner, G., et al (1981) Sexual and pituitary–testicular function in torture victims. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 10, 25–32.Google Scholar
Martin-Baro, I. (1988) From dirty war to psychological war: the case of El Salvador. In Flight, Exile, and Return: Mental Health and The Refugee (ed. A. Aron). San Francisco: Committee for Health Rights in Central America (CHRICA).Google Scholar
Mollica, R. F., Wyshak, G. & Lavelle, J. (1987) The psychosocial impact of war trauma and torture on southeast Asian refugees. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 1567–1572.Google Scholar
Moses, R. (1978) Adult psychic trauma. The question of early predisposition and some detailed mechanisms. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 59, 353–363.Google Scholar
Niederland, W. G. (1968) Clinical observations on the survivor syndrome. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 49, 313–315.Google ScholarPubMed
Pincus, J. H. (1978) Disorders of conscious awareness; hyperventilation syndrome. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 312–313.Google Scholar
Rachman, S. (1980) Emotional processing. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 18, 51–60.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, O. V. & Lunde, I. (1980) Evaluation of investigation of two hundred torture victims. Danish Medical Bulletin, 27, 241–243.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, O. V. & Marcussen, H. (1982) The somatic sequelae to torture. Manedsskrift for Praktisk Laegerning. (English version available from The International Centre for Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (RCT). Copenhagen.) Google Scholar
Ritterman, M. (1987) Torture, the counter therapy of the state. Networker, 43–47.Google Scholar
Schlapobersky, J. & Bamber, H. (1988) Torture as the perversion of a healing relationship; rehabilitation and therapy with the victims of torture and organised violence. Paper presented to the Annual Meeting, American Association for the Advancement of Science (copies available from the Medical Foundation, London).Google Scholar
Stover, E. & Nightingale, E. O. (eds) (1985) The Breaking of Bodies and Minds. New York: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Svendsen, G. (1985) When dealing with torture victims social work involves the entire family. Socialradgiveren. (English version available from The International Rehabilitation Centre fo Torture Victims (RCT), Copenhagen.) Google Scholar
Turner, S. W. (1989) Working with survivors. Psychiatric Bulletin, 13, 173–176.Google Scholar
United Nations (1984) Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. New York: Office of Public Information, United Nations.Google Scholar
Wirtz, P. W. & Harrell, A. V. (1987) Effects of postassault exposure to attack-similar stimuli on long-term recovery of victims. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 10–16.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.