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Biderman's Chart of Coercion, also called Biderman's Principles, is a table developed by sociologist
In a 1973 report on torture,
Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War
Report on Physical Pressures Training, January 15, 2002
Psychological abuse Guantanamo Bay detention camp Korean War prisoners of war Psychological torture techniques
Biderman's Chart of Coercion, also called Biderman's Principles, is a table developed by sociologist Albert Biderman
Albert may refer to:
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in 1957 to illustrate the methods of Chinese and Korean torture on American prisoners of war
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
from the Korean War. The chart lists eight chronological general methods of torture that will psychologically break an individual.
In spite of the chart's original Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
application, Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
has stated that the Chart of Coercion contains the "universal tools of torture and coercion". In the early 2000s, the chart was used by American interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...
. It has also been applied to the psychological abuse used by perpetrators of domestic violence
Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...
.
Origin
Albert D. Biderman, a social scientist with the US Air Force, was assigned to research why manyAmerican prisoners of war
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
(POW) captured by Communist forces during the Korean War were cooperating. After extensive interviews with returned POWs, Biderman concluded that there were three major elements behind the Communist interrogators' coercive control: "dependency, debility and dread". Biderman summarized his findings in a chart first published in the paper ''Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War'' in a 1957 issue of ''The Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
The New York Academy of Medicine (the Academy) is a health policy and advocacy organization founded in 1847 by a group of leading New York metropolitan area physicians as a voice for the medical profession in medical practice and public health re ...
''. The paper was an analysis of the psychological, rather than physical, methods used to coerce information and false confessions.
Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton
Robert Jay Lifton (born May 16, 1926) is an American psychiatrist and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of wars and political violence, and for his theory of thought reform. He was an early proponent of ...
conducted similar research into the same Chinese methods; coining the term "thought reform" (now known as brainwashing
Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwash ...
) to describe them in the same issue of ''The Bulletin''.
Coercion methods
The chart includes the following coercion methods: # Isolation # Monopolization of perception # Induced debilitation and exhaustion # Threats # Occasional indulgences # Demonstrating "omnipotence" and "omniscience" # Degradation # Enforcing trivial demandsLater applications
In a 1973 report on torture, Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
stated that Biderman’s Chart of Coercion contained the "universal tools of torture and coercion".
In 2002, US military trainers offered an entire training class to Guantanamo Bay detention camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...
interrogators based on Biderman's Chart. Documents revealed to Congressional investigators in 2008 revealed interrogation methods at the camp; '' The New York Times'' was the first to recognize that the methods were nearly verbatim those contained in Biderman's Chart.
Biderman's Chart of Coercion has also been applied to domestic violence
Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...
, with many noting that the psychological methods used by abusive partners are nearly identical to those of the chart.
References
{{ReflistExternal links
Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War
Report on Physical Pressures Training, January 15, 2002
Psychological abuse Guantanamo Bay detention camp Korean War prisoners of war Psychological torture techniques