Torture cannot be explained by a single real goal or torturer psychology

Evidence

Critics sometimes claim that “the extraction of information” is not the real goal of torture, but rather torture’s justification. But I suggest that there is no such thing as “the real goal of torture.” The motives (conscious and unconscious) of someone who carries out specific acts of torture are usually varied and mixed. The idea that specific acts of torture should be understood by the agent’s motivation is either circular or based on the sentimental (and false) belief that only peculiar psychological types are capable of great cruelty. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 508

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Underwrites Asad’s harder claim that asking torture’s ‘real goal’ is the wrong question entirely — motives are irreducibly mixed and ordinary people do terrible things.
• XREF: Connects to the vaulted claim that ordinary bureaucratic dispositions, not monstrous individuals, enable atrocity (Adorno’s manipulative/doing type).