#so that they are virtually impossible to forget--because you don't need memory to access them you can just read them always

[scripttorture]

Let's say X has information he wants to give to the good guys. The bad guys capture him and torture him for that info, but they don't get it. Then the good guys rescue him. How much of a delay would be reasonable before he can give that info to the good guys? Would it depend on how much time passed between he was last tortured and when he was rescued, and how complex the info is?

Theinformation may not be there any more.

Asidefrom making it virtually impossible to recall accurate information inthe moment torture has quite a few long term effects on memory. Theseeffects are all extremely common among survivors but as with anysymptom there isn’t any way to predict whether a survivor wouldsuffer from a particular symptom or not.

Thememory problems torture causes fall into four broad categories,problems with a combination (or even all) of these areas arepossible.

Thefirst is memory loss. This doesn’t effect older memories such asthe character’s childhood but more recent ones. So a characterwouldn’t realistically forget their name, their family or oldfriends. But they might forget everything they did in the week priorto being tortured. They might forget people they met recently. Theymight forget information they recently acquired. They canforget the torture itself but this is relatively rare.

Theinformation lost this way is gone. It’s not subconscious or….storedin some esoteric way. It is just gone.

Thesecond is false memories.We all subconsciously edit our memories. This is a natural part ofthe way the brain stores information and it means that we can neverbe 100% sure that our memories were completely accurate.

Butin torture survivors this happens a lot more than normal. Thedetails of more recently memories are subconsciously changed. Asurvivor may vividly remember the layout of a cell they were kept in-and describe it with the door on the wrong side of the room. Theymight be 100% certain that they were….only hit on the head once bythe torturer with the big nose- only to find that it was someone elsewho hit them.

These‘flaws’ in survivors’ memories are more common in memoriessurrounding torture and  more recently memories (ie things thathappened a short period of time before or after torture). This makesbuilding torture cases extremely difficult but it alsomeans that any information a survivor had learnt just before theywere tortured could be…..corrupted data.

Theycould be honestly wrong.

Thethird is a sort of general forgetfulness that persists long after thecharacter was tortured. Essentially torture damages our ability tostore new information. It is incredibly common for survivors to havemore trouble learning new things and remembering things in an everyday context.

Thissounds relatively benign but has a huge impact on survivors’ lives,making it more difficult to keep jobs, access medical care and have asatisfactory social life.

Thefourth category is intrusive memories which essentially means reallyvivid memories of traumatic events that keep replaying in thesurvivors’ mind.

Forthis ask the first two types of memory problems are the mostrelevant.

Youhave hit on one of the major factors: complex information is a lotless likely to ‘survive’ torture intact. But the other majorfactor isn’t how long it’s been since the victim character wasrescued but how long ago the victim learnt the information.

Thetime gap between learning the information and being tortured isincredibly important. A character is much more likely torealistically remember information they learnt in childhood theninformation they learnt any time in the last month before torture.

So-If this character is part of The Mystic Order of the Snail and learntthe location of the McGuffin they guard when he was twelve and is nowin his forties; then the chances are he’ll accurately remember thelocation of the McGuffin and can pass that along to the good guys.

Ifhowever he is I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-James-Bond and broke intoa secret base for this information last week; there’s a good chancethat information is gone for good, garbled, inaccurate or onlypartially remembered.

Thetimes between when the character was tortured, when they were rescuedand when their rescuers question them areimportant- but that’s less to do with the accuracy/existence of thecharacter’s memories and more to do with physical and psychologicalrecovery.

Acharacter who was recently tortured ‘for information’ should notbe thrown straight into an interview room by their rescuers becausethere’s a good chance that would trigger them. Aside from beingextremely unethical triggering and re-traumatising the character sosoon after torture risks further damage to any information they have.It increases the chances of that information being lost or garbled.

Ina rescue situation a character should be given time to physicallyrecover, get a proper night’s sleep, eat and drink. Ifthe rescuers want the best chance of getting that information theirfirst priority (after the victim is safe) should be to make surethey’re no longer delirious. Which means treating the effects ofsleep deprivation, starvation and dehydration, plus any medicalconditions such as infections or fevers.

Thatcan take a couple of days, I’d say 3-4.

Somecharacters may want to volunteer important information before thatpoint. Allowing them to do so and recording that information is agood idea, but rescuers should also ask them for the same informationa few days later to check if the survivor consistently remembers it.

Ifthe survivor has extensive physical injuries that need treatment suchas surgery then that should take place before they’re questioned,extending the time between rescue and questioning.

Onceit’s relatively safe and ethical to question the survivor therescuers need to consider how to approach questioning. Avoiding toomany interviewers is a good idea: one or two is probably ideal,survivors can get easily overwhelmed or triggered by having ‘toomany’ people around them in these early days.

Therescuers should also make a conscious effort to structure theenvironment in a way that’s completely different to thecell/torture chamber. The quality and colour of light can beincredibly important, as can things like having windows, the colourof the walls, decoration, scentsand soft furnishings.

Interviewersshould make it clear the survivor can stop at any time and respectthe survivor’s wishes if theywant to stop for any reason.

Theyshould also avoid any sort of aggressive questioning. If the survivorsays they don’t know or they’re not sure then that’s theanswer. Repeating questions multiple times is not helpful and mayprompt the formation of false memories.

Withoutmore information on the scenario you’re planning I think I’mgoing to have to leave that there.

Youmight find this post on leading questions helpful. Thispost on effective investigation may also be relevant.

Ihope that helps. :)

Disclaimer

#tw torture #effects of torture #memory #effective interrogation #torture as interrogation #torture doesn't work #writing victims #recovery #pomrania