Summary

Torture affects the wellbeing of our community. Torture is happening in the USA right now. People who are tortured experience symptoms and brain changes which affect their wellbeing. People who torture make a choice to engage in torture: the characteristics of torturers are reviewed briefly in this post. We, the people of the USA, can take action to stop torture by our current federal government. We need to work together to stop torture.

Torture Affects Community Wellbeing

Torture affects the wellbeing of everyone. The tortured person is deliberately targeted, affecting their wellbeing. The torturer’s wellbeing is impacted, at least on the neuroscientific level. And, the witnesses of torture experience a deterioration of wellbeing. Let’s explore my hypothesis that torture affects community wellbeing.

What Is Torture

According to Article 1, Part 1, of the United Nations Convention against Torture (December 10, 1984; entered into force June 26, 1987), ratified by the United States of America, torture is defined as

“any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.”

The Neuroscience of Torture

The neuroscience of torture refers to the torturer and the tortured person.

The Brain of a Tortured Person

There is a growing body of research elucidating how torture affects the tortured person and their families and their communities. I will not detail all of the literature related to torture and the neuroscientific effects in the tortured person.

Briefly, we know that torture affects the functioning of our brain: the functioning of brain circuits in our brain and the interaction between brain circuits.

Torture can affect our executive functioning (planning, executing plans, adapting to situations, balancing our emotional responses with our logical analyses in a given situation). Torture can affect our baseline internal functioning, that is when the default mode network is dominating the activity in our brain and we are inward focused rather that focused on the outside world. Torture can affect our ability to triage and to focus attention and cognitive control on information from external sources (salience network).

And, the literature demonstrates evidence for torture impacting the connectivity between different networks. All of this translates to multiple potential points of impact by torture, with future research required to elaborate the impacts.

The Torturer’s Brain

What about the effects of torture on the person committing torture? Torture committed by someone must affect the torturer, right?

Discovering research on the neuroscience of torturing took me down a rabbit hole at the bottom of which I found very few articles. If anyone has more information, I would love to see it. Since I have comments turned off on this website for confidentiality reasons (I do not want people sending me information about their mental health symptoms with their contact information), I hope that I will find your blog or your website or your Substack or your book or your article in the near future.

While the literature seems sparse, the information about the personality of the torturer is dense.

I discovered an article from 2024 which explores the psychology of the torturer, the effects of torture on the tortured person, and the potential interventions to address symptoms of the tortured person. The authors (Marchese and Schimmenti, 2024) in reviewing the literature related to the characteristics of the torturer identify the actions of the torturer to include dehumanization of the tortured person, devaluation of the tortured person, emotional desensitization, and lack of empathy.

The torturer may exploit the relationship with the tortured person by first identifying with the victim and then exploiting the power differential in the relationship. Torturers may have a personality disorder, particularly narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, or sadistic personality traits (not formerly a personality disorder under the DSM 5TR).

People who torture may employ defense mechanisms to protect their sense of self while justifying their actions. Defense mechanisms, discussed by Marchese and Schimmenti (2024)), fall on a spectrum of dysfunctional to adaptive. Defense mechanisms develop starting in childhood. Defense mechanisms may reflect the personality disorder or personality traits of a person, including of the torturer.

And, then there are those people who follow orders. People follow orders for many reasons, including to protect their own interests. I invite you to explore this topic further in conversations with friends and family because it may challenge people’s code of ethics, as it should.

Torturing someone is a crime and is unethical. Debate the issue and arrive at your own conclusion.

Torture Affects Community Wellbeing

I refer you to my previous blog posts to prove my point.

Social connectedness affects mental wellbeing. Socialization is decapitated by torture.

Mental health symptom management is affected by access to healthy food, exercise, nature and fresh air, health care services, shelter, sleep, a safe ambient temperature, medication access, and belongingness. Torture affects mental health symptom management.

Self-expression through the arts impacts wellbeing. Torture truncates a person’s ability to express themselves.

Peace and conflict affect the community’s wellbeing. Torture is an extreme example of conflict between two parties.

My wellbeing is affected by my neighbour’s wellbeing. Our community wellbeing is affected by the wellbeing of the individual members of the community.

Torture affects community wellbeing.

Where Is There Torture

Right here, in the United States of America.

https://www.latimes.com/delos/newsletter/2025-07-18/alligator-alcatraz-rep-maxwell-frost-florida

Please reread the definition of torture.

ICE in the United States of America is engaging in torture by rounding up people based on personal characteristics; is demanding information about immigration status, without evidence of reasonable suspicion that a person is illegally in the country, which is then used against the individual; is throwing people to the ground and beating them; is placing people in cages, specifically 32 people to a cage in Concentration Camp Alcatraz; is depriving people of access to water for bathing; is exposing people to insects which can transmit infections (mosquitoes, as an example, in Florida); is subjecting people to unsanitary living conditions (three toilets for 32 people and the water spigot for drinking water emanating from the toilet); is exposing people to excessive heat, with no access to any means to manage the ambient temperature of the environment; and all of this conducted under the direction of Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem and Thomas Homan, with the approbation of Governor Ron De Santis and President Donald J. Trump.

Torture is occurring in the United States of America because of the fragile egos (my personal opinion) of our leaders.

Some of our leaders will use semantics to justify their actions and the actions of those who are following the orders of the leader. The final sentence in Article 1, Part 1, of the United Nations Convention against Torture (December 10, 1984; entered into force June 26, 1987), is a loophole, in my opinion, for those who deny that their actions fall into the category of torture. Let’s be clear: circular arguments about how an action is not torture because in the mind of the torturer the action is not illegal will not fool me or many of US.

Stop the propaganda campaign. We see you and we will stop you. Period.

Call to Action: Stop Torture, Promote Community Wellbeing

Take action to stop torture. Torture affects community wellbeing.

We are the witnesses to torture.

Call your elected officials at the federal level and ask them if they stand against torture. Then remind them how their actions need to reflect their words.

US Capitol Switchboard 202.224.3121

Call your state elected officials.

Start the conversation with neighbours, family, and friends. We do not need to blame another person for the situation in the USA right now. We are all in this together. We share the blame and we need to fix this situation, together.

Stand up for your neighbours, your fellow community members, your family, and your friends. Do not let anyone be taken to the Concentration Camps which now exist all over the USA and offshore. Otherwise, we are all complicit.

Protest companies who are engaged in contracts with the torturers.

This country is our country. The USA Constitution needs to be upheld. We need to protect each other and hold our government accountable for its cruel and illegal actions. We need to stop torture. Torture affects our community and the wellbeing of our community.

I will not be quiet while torture is being conducted in my name. Not In My Name.

Inspire yourself with music, as always:

Ramin Karimloo performing ‘Cathedrals’ (by Jump, Little Children)

Sampling of previous pertinent blog posts:

Belonging is Important for Wellbeing

Wellbeing of the World

Neuroscience and Peace in 2025

Peace Building for Collective Wellbeing

Dehumanization Risks Our Wellbeing

Body Temperature and Mental Wellbeing

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to substitute for a consultation with your mental health professional team.

If you are having thoughts to hurt yourself or someone else, please CALL 9-1-1; CALL 9-8-8; or GO TO the nearest Emergency Room.

Selected References:

Barnes, B, (July 8, 2025). 5 things to know about GardaWorld, one of the contractors behind Alligator Alcatraz. Tampa Bay Times. Accessed online on July 20, 2025, at https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/07/08/alligator-alcatraz-desantis-trump-gardaworld-armored-cars/

Lim, S. (July 16, 2025). Here’s Why Avelo Airlines Is Ending California and West Coast Flights Amid Controversy. KQED. Accessed online on July 20, 2025, at https://www.kqed.org/news/12048388/heres-why-avelo-airlines-is-ending-california-and-west-coast-flights-amid-controversy#:~:text=Catch%20up%20fast%3A%20In%20April,and%20calls%20for%20a%20boycott.

Liddell, B.J., Das, P., Malhi, G.S., Felmingham, K.L., Outhred, T., Cheung, J., Den, M., Dickerson, A., Askovic, M., Aroche, J., Coello, M., Bryant, R. (2022 Jan 26). Torture exposure and the functional brain: investigating disruptions to intrinsic network connectivity using resting-state fMRI. Transl. Psychiatry, 12:37. Accessed online on July 20, 2025, at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8791936/#:~:text=This%20study%20found%20that%20torture,lateral%20frontal%20and%20admDMN%2FlCEN.

Marchese, E.V., Schimmenti, A. (2024). Torturers and their victims: Theory, research, and clinical perspectives. Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, 12(2): 1-37. Accessed online on July 20, 2025, at https://cab.unime.it/journals/index.php/MJCP/article/view/4090/pdf

Martinez, F. (July 8, 2025, 9:20am PT). Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost visited ‘Alligator Alcatraz’. This is what he saw. LA Times. Accessed online on July 20, 2025, at https://www.latimes.com/delos/newsletter/2025-07-18/alligator-alcatraz-rep-maxwell-frost-florida

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (December 10, 1984). Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. United Nations. Accessed online on July 20, 2025, at https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-against-torture-and-other-cruel-inhuman-or-degrading