Cultural logics of emotion: Implications for understanding torture and its sequelae

Abstract

This paper explores the significance of cultural variations in emotion for the meaning and impact of torture, focusing on the dynamics of shame, humiliation, and powerlessness. Forms of physical and psychological pain and suffering share some common neurobiological pathways and regulatory systems that are influenced by social and cultural factors. All forms of torture follow an affective logic rooted both in human biology and in local social and cultural meanings of experience. Understanding the impact of specific forms of torture on individuals requires knowledge of their learning histories, and of the personal and cultural meanings of specific kinds of violence. Exploring cultural meanings requires attention to over-arching discourse, embodied practices, and everyday engagements with an ecosocial environment. Restitution, treatment and recovery can then be guided by knowledge of cultural meanings, dynamics, and strategies for coping with catastrophic threats, injury, humiliation, helplessness and loss.

Culturally Informed Manifestations of Trauma

“…Collective representations or cultural scripts of trauma have alternatively been conceptualised as narrative "master scripts" by the transcultural psychiatrist Laurence Kirmayer and colleagues (Kirmayer, 2019;Kirmayer & Jarvis, 2019;Kirmayer et al, 2018). He notes that "we are narrative beings, fashioning ourselves from the stuff of stories, locating our biographies and life projects in discursive webs of shared meaning" (Kirmayer, 2019, p. 31).…”

“…In other words, it is a move away from conceptual models dominated by implicit colonial hierarchies or reified notions of culture as a homeostatic variable to be taken into consideration. The aim is not to rely on overly-crude or misleading cultural stereotypes (Kirmayer et al, 2018). Instead, the focus is on ever-changing cultural and social systems which determine the various forms of an individual subjective experience of illness, an experience inevitably in constant flux (Goguikian Ratcliff & Rossi, 2015).…”

Conclusion

“…Lack of attention to cultural context on the part of providers and decisionmakers can lead to mistrust of mental health information and services and reduce motivation to engage with mental healthcare or adhere to treatment (Faregh et al, 2019). Exploring the influence of culture on experiences of potentially traumatic events among refugee populations-both related to their original and current sociocultural context-should be a fundamental consideration in the clinical assessment of this population, as well as the design and delivery of mental health interventions (Hassan et al, 2015;Kirmayer et al, 2018).…”

Painful memories: Challenges in trauma-focused therapy for torture survivors with PTSD and chronic pain

“…Torture may lead to pain by all or some of these mechanisms, and this again is probably influenced by individual differences, as well as cultural and contextual factors. Although physiological pain sensations have some universal characteristics, perception and regulation of pain [and emotions] are related to culture and context, in the present as well as in the survivor's developmental learning history (Kirmayer et al, 2018). Torture may lead to local changes in pain modulation on specific body parts where the survivor has experienced torture (Prip et al, 2012;Thomsen et al, 2000).…”

“…The expression of pain and emotional distress differs between cultures. Kirmayer et al (2018) propose an eco-social framework that highlights broader systems such as attachment, security, identity, justice and existential meaning. This perspective encompasses contextual factors, and acknowledges that the appraisal of, and response to, pain is culturally rooted.…”