Torture

About: Torture is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 8173 publications have been published within this topic receiving 109895 citations.

Tortured families: a Coordinated Management of Meaning analysis.

Abstract: Torture is known to affect both the individual and the family. The aim of the present study was to reach a better understanding of the significance of communication and information about parental exposure to violence in torture-surviving families. The theoretical background is Social Constructionism and Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM). In-depth interviews were carried out with 14 members of 3 Middle Eastern refugee families living in Denmark in which the father had been exposed to torture. The 3 families experienced their life stories and situations as refugees in very different ways, ranging from meaninglessness, discontinuance, and alienation to a sense of community, solidarity, and openness. Communications about past events were related to such meaning-providing contexts. The way in which parents talk with their children about torture and organized violence can be understood in terms of "stories told" and "stories lived." When stories told (e.g., the experience of torture and organized violence) are in contradiction to stories lived, a situation of ambiguity and uncertainty is created. The meaning-providing contexts for making sense of the family history of violence and exile can be more or less coherent or contradictory, and might result in a strengthened relationship or confusion, powerlessness, and action paralysis. Clinicians can help traumatized families deal with their past histories of violence by paying attention to such ambiguities and contradictions.

The influence of exile and repatriation on mental and physical health. A population-based study.

Abstract: This study tested the association between psychosocial stressors extracted from a previous qualitative study, and psychological distress, long-term illness and self-rated ill-health among Latin American refugees in Lund, Sweden, and among repatriated Latin Americans The study was designed as a population-based cross-sectional study A structured questionnaire from the Swedish Annual Level-of-Living Surveys 1989: 2 was translated into Spanish Latin American refugees in Lund (n=338) and those who had lived in Lund and were repatriated to Santiago de Chile (n=51) and Montevideo, Uruguay (n=9), were interviewed in their homes in Sweden and in Latin America The data were analysed unmatched with logistic regression in main effect models Torture was an independent risk indicator for psychological distress, with an estimated odds ratio of 271 (145–485) There was a significant association between discrimination, not feeling secure in everyday life and psychological distress, with estimated odds ratios of 193(102–356) and 323(162–616), respectively Torture and not feeling secure in everyday life were independent risk factors for long-term illness Torture, discrimination and not feeling secure in everyday life were significant strong risk factors for ill-health Repatriated refugees had significantly higher shares of not feeling secure compared with Latin Americans in Sweden As risk factors of psychological distress and illness, torture, discrimination and not feeling secure proved to be as important as traditional risk factors such as material factors and lifestyle

Prevalence of torture survivors among foreign-born patients presenting to an urban ambulatory care practice

Abstract: BACKGROUND: The prevalence of torture among foreign-born patients presenting to urban medical clinics is not well documented.

The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-terrorism in Algeria, 1955-1957

Abstract: No French army officer had ever spoken up in such detail on the subject of torture during the bloody 8-year conflict that led to Algeria's independence until this book was first published. General Paul Aussaresses decided to break the silence and reveal the bitter truth of the war on terrorism as the French army fought it in the late 1950s. While many, including Francois Mitterrand, who was the Interior, and later, Justice Minister [and future President of France], knew and approved of torture and summary executions in Algeria between 1954 and 1962, the extent of the French government's involvement and that of its official representatives on the spot in Algiers had never been revealed until now.