Anyone Can Inflict Torture, Report Claims : 2 Psychologists Say Training Can Make ‘Normal’ People Capable of It

Anyone can be trained to become a torturer, according to two psychologists who have found that institutional torture, like that in some military dictatorships, is inflicted by well-adjusted people.

“We frequently think when we read of cases of institutional torture . . . that they found a group of disturbed people. In real fact, one has to be normal to begin with,” said Janice T. Gibson, chairman of psychology and education at the University of Pittsburgh.

Given the proper training, “anybody . . . you or I” could inflict torture, even though most people say they would be incapable of torturing another person, Gibson said Friday.

“That’s what the people who did it also say,” she said. “It’s a convenient and relaxing thought to say these were monsters. You can sleep better if you think that.”

An estimated one-third of all the world’s governments accept torture as a legitimate practice and routinely torture prisoners and political opponents, according to Don G. Healey, executive director of Amnesty International.

“There aren’t many fools for torturers. The military does it, and if you’re in the military, that’s what you do,” Healey said. “It’s generally not your sadist and your pervert.”

Mika Haritos-Fatouros, dean of philosophy at the University of Thessaloniki in Greece, in 1982 began studying military police officers who were trained as torturers during the Greek civil uprising in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Prosecuted for Conduct

Of the 16 torturers interviewed, all but one had completed at least some high school and none had exhibited disturbed behavior as children. All were interviewed after they were prosecuted for their conduct.

“The case studies of the families showed that these were normal, healthy, young children,” Gibson said. “We particularly were interested in whether there was any evidence of cruelty of children. There was not.

“There was not a delinquent among them. There was no sign of marital discord.”

The torturers were chosen for their jobs because of their physical strength and political beliefs, the two psychologists said in an article published in the November issue of Psychology Today. They later were screened for aggression and the ability to follow orders blindly.

Training often included brutal initiation rites: recruits were cursed, punched, kicked and forced to run until they collapsed. They were told by superiors how fortunate they were, and the recruits were led to practice special rites and use nicknames, a technique for making them feel separate from society.

To diminish their uneasiness about torture, the recruits were rewarded for successful torture techniques and punished for disobedience. They also were forced to undergo torture themselves to squelch any sensitivity they might have toward inflicting pain.

Unpleasant to Them

Only one of the torturers expressed remorse, although none of them had taken pleasure in their actions, according to Gibson.

“They didn’t like it. It was a really unpleasant thing to do. It was part of the job. They had been taught to obey authority and they obeyed authority,” she said.

The training techniques resemble those used for the regular military service, the psychologists said.

“In the American military, you’re teaching people to be obedient to authority and to commit abhorrent acts under order, killing,” Gibson said. “Torture is one step further because we can develop moral rationales for killing in wartime.”

Even college fraternities implement milder forms of the techniques in hazing pledges, Gibson said.

“They don’t create real torture, but it does go far enough that people do things they never dreamed they would have done. And that’s a step along the way,” she said.