In "The Structure of Torture" from the philosophical study The Body in Pain, Scarry argues that pain can ultimately define one's reality from opposite points of the psychological spectrum. This aspect of pain is very useful politically, specifically during torture. The juxtaposing experiences of the torturer and the prisoner cause one to deteriorate and another to claim power. For the prisoner, his reality greatly diminishes to an awareness and presence of pain, where "every conceivable aspect of the event and the environment" is converted into "an agent of pain" (27-28). On the contrary, the torturer's reality expands into an illusion of dominance as the prisoner sees the agents of pain as the torturer's sources of power. Usually the motive for torture is interrogation, the "process of disintegrating perception brought about by great pain and objectified in confession" (30). In a general interrogation setting, an interrogator might physically and verbally "soften" the prisoner by crushing his sense of identity and "civilization," then coax a confession out of the prisoner and take control of his voice. This setting might play out differently depending on the type of interrogator as well, such as the militant, perfectionist, and the sadist. But from the interrogator's perspective, if he doesn't gather information, he fails. Subjected to the pressure of doing his job correctly, the interrogator eventually is dehumanized and views the torture as a means to gathering information. The torture is fruitless because the torturer asks questions that the prisoner is no longer concerned with, questions that are outside of the prisoner's reality. In the end, the motive ends up being a sham; instead, the real motive is to win the game of power.
Great analysis of Scarry; the words you select really express her well. I especially enjoy your use of the words "diminish" and "expand", as well as constantly using the idea of the "agent of pain", almost as if pain itself was a living, demonic being. In my opinion, this just serves to make the idea of "pain" even stronger.
ReplyDeleteI also very much agree with you in saying that sometimes "interrogation for information" can be used as a mask for torture, the real motive of it being just to show off the torturer's difference in power. This much is evident, an example being Abu Ghraib, where many soldiers were tortured, abused and humiliated without good reason, and certainly not for the sake of "getting information".