The History Of Torture

by SCOTT

• ISBN13: 9780710308375
• ISBN10: 071030837X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-05-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Torture, an enduring and seemingly not declining aspect of man's relationship to his fellow man, is an enduring thread through human history. Whether it be practiced by primitive people, the ancient Greeks or the Catholic Church, whether it be ancient China, Japan, 1930's Germany, or Northern Ireland today, torture is alarmingly systematic and consistent in its methods. Impaling, burning, rack or wheel, mutilation, drawing and quartering, burning or hanging alive in chains.

Table of Contents

PREFACE	v
"It can't happen now"
A dangerous viewpoint
The ostrich attitude
Acknowledgments
PART I PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF TORTURE
I. THE MEANING AND LIMITATIONS OF TORTURE	1	(5)
A question of terminology
The reality of psycho-logical torture
Illegitimate, surreptitious and camouflaged torture
II. THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF TORTURE	6	(8)
A primary means of exacting vengeance
An expression of power
The physiology of hate
The toleration of torture by society
Mob psychology in relation to the development of torture
III. SADISM AS A BASIC CAUSE OF TORTURE BY THE INDIVIDUAL	14	(7)
The sadistic concept of torture
Sadism developed by public exhibitions of torture
The indulgence of private sadism
IV. THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE IN MASOCHISM	21	(3)
The submission to torture
Martyrdom and masochism
V. THE CAUSES OF WHOLESALE OR MASS TORTURE	24	(5)
Sacrifice in relation to torture
The weak and the despised
State domination and power
VI. THE EFFECTS OF TORTURE	29	(6)
Paralysing influence upon the individual
Futility of torture in the securing of confession or evidence
Psychological effects on society
PART II THE HISTORY OF TORTURE
VII. TORTURE AMONG SAVAGE AND PRIMITIVE RACES	35	(9)
The transition from torture as a religious rite to penal torture
The place of torture in initiatory rites
Punishment by torture
VIII. TORTURE IN ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME	44	(8)
Torture of free citizens
The torture of slaves
The Roman gladiators
IX. THE PROGRESS OF TORTURE	52	(12)
The attitude of the Church
The Christian approach
The persecutions suffered by the Waldenses
The persecutions suffered by the Quakers
The growth of judicial and penal torture in Europe
X. THE HOLY INQUISITION	64	(22)
The birth and development of the Holy Office
The examination of the accused
Inside the torture chamber
The auto da fé
Influence of the Inquisition
Victims of the Inquisition
XI. TORTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND	86	(9)
The rise of judicial torture in England
Judicial torture in Scotland and Ireland
Torture in the guise of punishment
XII. THE PERSECUTION OF THE WITCHES	95	(7)
The war upon demonology
The mark of Satan
Witch-hunting in Britain
XIII. TORTURE IN CHINA, JAPAN AND INDIA	102	(17)
Judicial torture in China
Methods of punishment
Capital punishment in China
Torture in Japan
A terrible campaign of religious persecution
Japanese methods of punishment
Torture in India
The terrible kittee and other Indian tortures
Torture of school children
Some bizarre forms of torment
XIV. THE TORTURE OF SLAVES IN THE WEST INDIES, MAURITIUS AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA	119	(15)
The traffic in human beings-Methods of torture employed
Torture will who torture can
The horrors of Mauritius
Torture of American slaves
XV. THE WAR UPON TORTURE	134	(7)
The growth of opposition
The decline of torture
The war upon animal torture
XVI. SOME NOTORIOUS TORTURERS	141	(12)
The ancient tyrants
Torturers of the Middle Ages
Some eighteenth and nineteenth century torturers
PART III THE TECHNIQUE OF TORTURE
XVII. IMPALING METHODS	153	(4)
Crucifixion
The "Dice"
Peine forte et dure or pressing to death
XVIII. BURNING AT THE STAKE, BRANDING, BOILING TO DEATH, THE FIRE-PAN AND THE BRAZEN BULL	157	(11)
Burning alive
Branding
Boiling and frying
The brazen bull
XIX. SQUASSATION, THE RACK, THE WHEEL, THE BOOT AND THE SCAVENGER'S DAUGHTER	168	(20)
Squassation or the torture of the pulley
Torture of the rack or wooden horse
The torture of water
Torture of the wheel
Stoning to death-Torture of the boot
The Scavenger's Daughter
Hurling from a tower or height
XX. WHIPPING AND BEATING	188	(20)
Flogging implements and methods of the Middle Ages
The Jamaica cart-whip
The technique in Mauritius
England's cat-o'-nine-tails
Cart's tail and other penal floggings
Private and sadistic floggings
XXI. MUTILATION, DRAWING AND QUARTERING, DECAPITATION, ETC	208	(9)
Mutilation
Scalping
Drawing and quartering
Decapitation
Flaying alive
XXII. BURYING ALIVE, HANGING ALIVE IN CHAINS, STARVATION, THE "VIRGIN MARY," ETC	217	(10)
Burying alive
Hanging alive in chains
The Black Hole of Calcutta
Torture by starvation
Drowning
Torture of the boats
The kiss of the "Virgin Mary."
XXIII. TORTURE BY ORDEAL	227	(7)
The red-hot iron ordeal
Ordeal of Boiling water
The cold-water ordeal
XXIV. MISCELLANEOUS FORMS OF TORTURE	234	(22)
The pillory and the stocks
The thumbscrews
Torture of the "iron gauntlets"
Torture of the glove
The ducking-stool
The scold's bridle
Torture of the pendulum
Torture of the bath
Military tortures
Some bizarre tortures
"Little case" and "torture of the rats"
Various prison tortures
XXV. METHODS OF SELF-INFLICTED TORTURE	256	(8)
The Flagellants
Self-tortures of saints and penitents
The Indian suttee
XXVI. MODERN METHODS OF TORTURE	264	(14)
Torture in Russia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
The Bolshevist atrocities
Torture in Abyssinia
Torture in South-West Africa
The Chinese communist atrocities
Torture in modern warfare
Terrorism in Ireland
The American lynchings
The "third degree."
XXVII. FORMS OF TORTURE OF ANIMALS	278	(9)
The criminal prosecution of animals
Bull-baiting and bear-baiting
The Spanish bull-fight
Miscellaneous forms of modern animal cruelty
PART IV THE CASE AGAINST TORTURE
XXVIII. THE FUTILITY OF TORTURE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CRIMINALITY	287	(11)
The aims of punishment
The limitations of fear as a deterrent
The nullity of punishment in a reformatory sense
Experience confounds the arguments of the floggers
XXIX. THE EVILS OF TORTURE AS A FORM OF PUNISHMENT	298	(4)
Dangers incidental to excessive pain
The brutalizing effect of punishment
The suppression of humanity
XXX. THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGICAL ELEMENT IN TORTURE, AND ITS TREATMENT	302	(4)
The limitations of punishment
Treatment of sadism and masochism
XXXI. THE ABOLITION OF TORTURE	306	(9)
Preventing the torture of children and animals
Difficulties in the way of abolition
The real solution
BIBLIOGRAPHY	315	(6)
INDEX	321