As reprinted in Harper's Magazine, April 1997 issue. Psychological Torture, CIA-Style a handbook written by the Central Intelligence Agency and used during the early 80's to teach Latin American security forces how to extract information from prisoners. The manual was obtained in January through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Baltimore Sun as part of an investigation of the CIA's involvement in Honduras. The purpose of all coercive techniques is to induce psychological regression in the subject by bringing a superior outside force to bear on his will to resist.
Regression is basically a loss of autonomy, a reversion to an earlier behavioral level.
As the subject regresses, his learned personality traits fall away in reverse chronological order. He begins to lose the capacity to carry out the highest creative activities, to deal with complex situations, or to cope with stressful interpersonal relationships or repeated frustrations. The manner and timing of the subjects arrest should be planned to achieve surprise and the maximum amount of mental discomfort. When arrested at this time, most subjects experience intense feelings of shock, insecurity, and psychological stress, and have great difficulty adjusting to the situation. Detention A person's sense of identity depends upon the continuity in his surroundings, habits, appearance, relations with others, etc.