Torture and its effects-Psychological perspective

What comes in your mind when you hear the word Torture? Definitely it means a lot of pain and is not possible to measure the quantity of it. Physical and Mental torture seems different but they are actually interrelated because physical torture leads to mental torture which develops horror in mind. Unfortunately torture is present everywhere and in all forms of government (democratic or not). According to statistics, it is practised in the whole world, 50% of all countries and 79% of G-20 countries (two groups are in G-20,one is G-20 major economies and G-20 developing nations) are still practising it even after the universal ban.

Horror can be differentiate through different means of torture. For example institutionalized torture is the one which is from the officials/state criminals of a country and it is different from the isolated torture which can be done by any individual or we can say that the non-state criminals. In both cases, one thing is similar-the feeling of helplessness because the victim of torture thinks that the one who is torturing is more powerful and he cannot fight to protect himself.

According to a research by Metin Besoglu, it has been found that the torture in political activities can lead to the worst psychological traumas. The reason which Besoglu gave is that every person has strong beliefs in ideas/perceptions and religious faiths and they play a vital role in the feeling of helplessness. It makes the victim feels not more powerful during torture by the victimizers. When a person is not able to control his feelings then it may have the worst traumatizing effects after a prolong stress.

The torture syndrome has been put in to the PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and CTD (cumulative trauma disorders). The main reason of PTSD is depression in a population. Post-torture symptoms can be identified through chronic pain and there is a possibility of association of this pain with musculoskeletal damage and also neurophysiological damage after head injury or hallucinations.
If the parents have suffered torture the children may have the symptoms of depression, headaches, aggression and learning difficulties. The other finding is that the tortured-ones have more possibilities in surviving torture with patience then the non-tortured ones. The need is to have a sense of control which can lead a person to come out of the traumatic stress.

After being a victim, vengeance comes and according to an observation, it is more stronger in those who saw their loved ones in pain after being tortured, raped or killed. So the whole family is affected through the act of torture on just one person and it can destroy the whole life of a family.