159 A NOTE ON PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE CRIME OF TORTURE Justin Clemens and Russell Grigg * ‘All questioning is a forcible intrusion. When used as an instrument of power it is like a knife cutting into the flesh of the victim. The questioner knows what there is to find, but he wants to touch it and bring it to light. He sets to work on the internal organs with the sureness of a surgeon. But he is a special kind of surgeon, one who keeps his victim alive in order to find out more about him, and, instead of anaesthetizing, deliberately stimulates pain in certain organs in order to find out what he wants to know about the rest of the body.’ — Elias Canetti 1 ‘Torture is senseless violence, born in fear. The purpose of torture is not only the extortion of confessions, of betrayal: the victim must disgrace himself, by his screams and his submissions, like a human animal.’ — Jean-Paul Sartre 2 1. TORTURE AND CRIME Let’s be clear. 3 Torture is an international crime under all circumstances. Countries in which torture is sanctioned are considered states that violate human rights — to the extent that they * Justin Clemens teaches in psychoanalytic studies at Deakin University. He is a member of the Lacan Circle of Melbourne, and has published extensively on psychoanalysis and philosophy. Russell Grigg is a member of the Lacan Circle of Melbourne, the Ecole de la Cause freudienne and the New Lacanian School. He lives in Melbourne where he practices psychoanalysis and teaches philosophy and psychoanalytic studies at Deakin University. He is the translator of Lacan’s Seminar XVII, The Other Side of Psychoanalysis (Norton, 2005). Mailing address: Faculty of Arts, Deakin University, Burwood Highway, Burwood VIC, 3125. 1 Canneti Elias Crowds and Power Stewart Carol (trans) Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1984 p 284. 2 Sartre Jean-Paul ‘Preface’ Alleg Henri The Question Calder John (trans) Braziller New York 1958 p 23. 3 This article originated in a forum on ‘The Crime of Torture’ organised by the Psychoanalytic Studies program at Deakin University, and held 25 June 2005 at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, the day preceding the International Day for Torture Victims. Speakers included politicians, lawyers, civil rights activists, philosophers, sociologists, mental health and other professionals working with the victims of torture: Lindsay Tanner, Patrick McGorry, Robert Sparrow, Paris Aristotle, Brian Walters, Marius Smith, Stan van Hooft, Geoff Boucher, Matthew Sharpe, Lynne Alice, Ian Weeks, Les Thomas and Max Charlesworth. The presentation dealt with a variety of issues thrown up by the recent revivification of the alleged ‘goods of torture.’ Political, psychological, legal, philosophical and pragmatic questions were discussed in detail, from a number of professional and personal perspectives. We would also like to thank Juliet Rogers for her help and encouragement with this article, as well as our two anonymous referees, whose comments have enabled us to sharpen our points, clarify our language, and, in some cases, saved us from errors.