Carl Jung on physio-moral torture
To Hans E. Tiitsch
Dear Dr. Tiitsch, 23 February 1950
With regard to your question I must advise you that the only information I have at my disposal is what has appeared in the newspapers.
From this one can draw only speculative conclusions but nothing certain can be made out.
It is altogether possible that, through physio-moral torture, deprivation of sleep, systematic poisoning with an opium derivative or a similar toxin, a man can be demoralized and made so suggestible that he will do another’s will simply to avoid further torment.
Threatened with exquisite physical tortures, most of us would give in long beforehand and confess whatever was wanted.
Since we have not used torture for the last 150 years in our administration of justice, we are totally ignorant of the psychic effects of torture.
Only in the concentration camps have we been able to see what devastating effects torture has on the morale of the individual.
I don’t think one need envisage any specific chemical means as an explanation of the astonishing statements of the accused.
I would rather not write an article about it since, as you see, the question is undecided for me for lack of sufficient information.
Yours very truly,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 545.
Note: Foreign editor of the Neue Zurcher Zeitung, asked for a contribution on the psychological aspect of the Russian trials, in particular those in Budapest of the Englishman Edgar Sanders and the American Robert A. Vogeler.