Moving from a phenomenology of the body, I will argue that torture must be understood in light of the lived-body, its projects and its pain. Drawing on Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Drew Leder, and Elizabeth Scarry, I will first develop a phenomenological description of the body in pain. This will include a description of the intersubjective life-world of the body in pain.

Using examples both from the past (Dante, judicial torture, ancient warfare and Continue reading →