Whether torture is physical or mental the trauma is the same

[IChing]

Medical Studies/Trials
Published: Tuesday, 6-Mar-2007

In a study which has examined forms of ill treatment during captivity, researchers have found that psychological torment and humiliation can inflict as much terror and trauma as physical torture.

The study was carried out by psychologists at King's College, University of London, and the Clinical Hospital Zvezdara in Belgrade, on 279 former prisoners from the former Yugoslavia including Bosnians, Croatians and Serbians.

All had experienced at least one form of physical torture such as beatings as well as mental torture, and of the 241 men, 192 had been in detention camps, with the torture experiences occurring roughly eight years earlier.>>>>snip

In an accompanying editorial Dr. Steven H. Miles, of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis says the distinction between torture and degrading treatment is not only useless, but also dangerous.

>>>>snip

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=22424

[DBoon]

1. George Orwell understood this

what broke WInston Smith was not the horrific torture, but the rats he had to face in Room 101

[Solly Mack]

2. I would have thought this to be obvious

Not all bullies hit - some just use threats and other words meant to humiliate to instill fear....to terrorize.

You don't have to make a person bleed to create a scar. Words can do that... living in fear can do it.

[Triana]

3. Same with "domestic" abuse...

...the mental/verbal/emotional abuse is just as bad as the physical. Unfortunately, we tend to concentrate on the physical, ignoring the rest - in both "domestic" and foreign venues. Both do equivalent damage.

[Maeve]

7. In some ways, the emotional is worse---

In that it "justifies" the physical and leaves the victim hopeless and trapped. A broken bone is easier to heal than a broken spirit.

[Psephos]

4. So true...but enough about my love life. n/t

[seriousstan]

5. When you break a mind you break a mind.

It don't matter how.

[WePurrsevere]

6. They needed to spend money to do a study on what I thought was an obvious &

already well established fact? I, and many others, could have told them this many many years ago. "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can cut much deeper".

[all.of.me]

8. there is a book called 'the verbally abusive relationship'

it shows how damaging words can be. interpersonal relationships are parallel to global relationships.