Psychiatrists weaponized electric shock treatment as an interrogation technique.

Evidence

There are, for instance, psychiatrists in Algiers, known to numerous prisoners, who have given electric shock treatments to the accused and have questioned them during the waking phase, which is characterized by a certain confusion, a relaxation of resistance, a disappearance of the person’s defenses. When by chance these men are liberated because the doctor, despite this barbarous treatment, was able to obtain no information, what is brought to us is a personality in shreds. The work of rehabilitating the man is then extremely difficult. — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 444

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: psychiatric torture as a distinct category of ‘medical interrogation’ distinct from truth serum or wound management.
• XREF: connects to: CIA’s interrogation techniques influenced by psychological experimentation. — Nicholson Baker, Baseless- My Search for Secrets in the…, 81; Psychiatric treatment pressure can coerce innocent youths into false confessions — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 494; Horne distinguishes physical brutality after arrest from systematic torture aimed at extracting information — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 581 (+1 more)

Related

• CIA’s interrogation techniques influenced by psychological experimentation. (similarity 0.80)
• Horne distinguishes physical brutality after arrest from systematic torture aimed at extracting information (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• CIA’s interrogation techniques influenced by psychological experimentation. #corroborates (0.70) — Nicholson Baker, Baseless- My Search for Secrets in the…, 81
• Brutalizing war and fear of losing drove army torture institutionalization #corroborates (0.60)
• Horne distinguishes physical brutality after arrest from systematic torture aimed at extracting information #qualifies (0.50) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 581
• Psychiatric treatment pressure can coerce innocent youths into false confessions #expands (0.40) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 494