Biderman Albert D., Zimmer Herbert The Manipulation Of Human Behavior

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.Redlich, Ravitz, and Dession (71) asked their normal subjects to withhold anembarrassing incident from an interviewer during a sodium amytal interview.For the most part thesubjects were able to do so, and the authors postulate a need for punishment in the two subjects whomade full confessions.These authors conclude, as does Inbau (45), that "truth serums" are successful onpersons who would have disclosed their information anyway, and that the person who is lying willcontinue his deception under drugs.See (Chapter 3.)Not only does the person suffering from a war neurosis usually recall the traumatic events whilenarcotized but he also behaves differently during the interviews from the malingerer (1, 37).Neuroticpatients were found to be eager to recover the events, they groped for an answer, and were upset at notbeing able to recall.In discussing the events surrounding the period of amnesia they would frequentlybecome restless, perspire profusely, become tense and rigid, breathe rapidly, move convulsively, andsometimes cry out.The intensity of the emotion may become unbearable when the patient reaches theclimax of the story.The malingerer rarely shows these emotional and physiologic reactions under sodiumamytal.However, according to Grinker and Spiegel (37), there are some neurotic patients who show littleovert anxiety and who block in the account of their experience as they approach the moment of trauma.Insuch cases, Grinker and Spiegel report that more than one session of narcosynthesis may be necessary torecover the trauma.This, then, appears to be the most effective procedure for differentiating hysterical amnesia frommalingered amnesia.According to MacDonald (57) narcoanalysis may work in even another fashion.It-295-sometimes provides the malingering criminal with an apparently honorable way of divulging what heclaims to have forgotten.Although narcoanalysis seems to help in differentiating neurotic and malingeredamnesia, it cannot rule out the possibility of organic pathology.Sodium amytal will not lift amnesia dueto brain disfunction, and there is some evidence that it will not restore memories to acutely psychoticindividuals (12).Applications to InterrogationAt first glance, interrogation would appear to be a situation where malingering is quite likely to beemployed.The captive source is faced with the dilemma of which of two roles to play-that demanded byhis country or that demanded by the enemy-and his selection of either role might result in serioussanctions, including loss of life.The simulation of incompetence offers a solution to this role conflict byenabling the prisoner to remain loyal to his country and by providing him with an alibi for not submittingto the enemy.However, a number of circumstances peculiar to the interrogation situation seem to operatein an opposite direction and may be influential in reducing the likelihood of malingering.These factorsappear to have a restraining influence on the prisoner and a liberating one on the interrogator.As compared with the citizen, the prisoner must show greater restraint and care in adoptingmalingering as a solution because of his uncertainty of the effect of such a role.In civilian life, simulationis attempted partly because of the humanitarian values held by the society.The person hopes that he willbe labeled mentally ill, and when this happens, he expects that no further demands will be made on him,that he will not be held responsible for his conduct, and that he will be treated with kindness and care.The prisoner who simulates in the interrogation situation has no such assurance about the enemy'shumanitarian and benevolent outlook.Mental illness may be considered deviationism or negativism,either in the culture in general or in the interrogation situation in particular.Moreover, the prisoner mayhave become convinced, and perhaps realistically, that his life depends on his worth to the enemy, andthat if he cannot give information, he has no worth.This may make the prisoner reluctant to appearincompetent, or at least completely incompetent, and therefore would act to reduce the amount anddegree of malingering.Thus, the prisoner is uncertain that simulation would-296-produce the desired effect, and indeed, there is the danger that if his ruse is accepted, the directly oppositeeffect might result.The prisoner may be restrained from or reluctant to initiate or continue malingering because of thenature of the prisoner-interrogator relatioaship.The relationship offers the potential for rather greatintimacy, and therefore for the development of fear and guilt in the prisoner.Fear may not be as great acomponent in civil life since the malingerer is assured a great deal of protection.Many people areinvolved in his case, and appeals are always possible to courts, civil rights boards, mental healthcommissions, etc.The prisoner of war, however, may be placed in the custody of a single interrogator, orhe may be made to believe that it is the interrogator alone who makes all the decisions about his well-being, his value to the enemy, and his fate.With one authority figure who has seemingly unlimited power,the game becomes more dangerous, since the sanctions for being caught in a deception may be immediateand great, and there is no recourse or appeal to other power figures.Thus, the fear of being found outshould be greater in the interrogation situation; this should serve to reduce the amount of malingeringattempted and possibly reduce the adequacy of the simulation that is attempted.Guilt may become involved because of the closeness which sometimes grows up between theinterrogator and the prisoner.In some lengthy interrogations, the interrogator may, by virtue of his role asthe sole supplier of satisfaction and punishment, assume the stature and importance of a parental figure inthe prisoner's feeling and thinking.Although there may be intense hatred for the interrogator, it is notunusual for warm feelings also to develop.This ambivalence is the basis for guilt reactions, and if theinterrogator nourishes these feelings, the guilt may be strong enough to influence the prisoner's behavior [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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