Remembering the true meaning of torture

Many people use the word torture carelessly, “It was torture waiting for the bus in the cold weather.” “It was torture having to speak in front of all those people.” “It was torture studying for all those exams in school.” Jon Hubbard, Research Director at the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), understands the “realness” of “torture.” “People use the word without attaching ‘realness’ to it,” he told me during our interview.

How can one understand the “realness” of “torture,” especially one who’s never experienced torture themselves? One can also ask, how can an individual understand life if they’ve barely experienced life? In the late 1960s and early ’70s, it was becoming common for people to go directly to college after graduating from high school. It was also common for one to involve themselves in politics, social activism and human rights issues, which is the path Hubbard chose. Hubbard took a 16-year hiatus from school, realizing that he needed to experience more of life before—at age 34—he enrolled at the University of Minnesota where he eventually earned a masters degree in child psychology, and completed his Ph.D. in developmental and clinical psychology. Initially Jon was interested in becoming a social worker, then decided he’d like to be a psychologist with a private practice. When Jon found a means to help him pay his tuition by learning statistics and research, he pursued becoming a researcher, which he is today.

In 1992, Hubbard completed a fellowship at The National Institute of Mental Health, where he studied the effects various therapeutic practices had on trauma victims from Cambodia, who were resettling in Minnesota. In 1993, he began working at The Center for Victims of Torture—located on the East bank of the U of M—to get clinical experience and provide therapy for torture victims. He left to do a clinical residency at Hennepin County Medical Center in 1995, and went back to CVT where he saw clients—refugees from more than 60 countries— on a full-time basis. Seeing clients eventually became overwhelming for Hubbard, so in 2000 he became a full time researcher for CVT. He designs therapeutic assessment techniques and program evaluation methods that he uses with more than 60 cultures in varying contexts. He measures if and to what degree torture victims can recover and adapt to a new environment, allowing them to function socially, in a job, academically and spiritually. He also assesses levels of resilience. Jon continues to put his heart and soul into this work every day at the Minnesota Center, and has done so in 30 countries where he has trained thousands of people. He also serves as a research consultant at the U of M where he advises students working on their doctorates, and gives seminars about the effects torture and war has on its victims.

Much of Hubbard’s work involves traveling to countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone, West Africa, where he sets up and oversees mental health clinics at refugee camps. He stays in the villages for up to six weeks to get to know the people while he trains clinicians and peer counselors how to treat torture victims. Most refugees remain displaced in refugee camps. They can’t get to CVT in Minnesota. Denmark established the first torture center, and Canada followed, but Minnesota’s first and only CVT in America is the most acclaimed. In Minnesota, Hubbard has constructed training programs for professionals in fields such as human services, health care and education, enabling CVT to refer victims they are unable to treat, elsewhere. Because the effects of torture often last a lifetime, training involves teaching the symptoms a torture victim may exhibit if re-traumatized. An example of this may be, men in uniform inflict the most torture, therefore when a victim sees someone in uniform, post-trauma behavior such as hysteria may result.

What is torture? A group of people seeks to take control of a population. They capture and torture those who are most prominent in society, sending a message to others that if they don’t follow the new leadership, they too will be tortured. Jon points out that many torture victims were once well-respected professionals in leadership positions. The most common method of torture is beating—beating that leaves scars inside and outside the body. Sleep deprivation; exposure to constant, loud, piercing noise, which often results in hearing loss; repetitive rape on men, women and children; continuous electrical shock; deprivation of food and daylight in which victims lose any concept of day and night; hanging one by their arms and legs; and brainwashing are all methods used to torture victims. “Torture” is not studying for exams or speaking to a group of people. Society uses the term “torture” loosely. As a result, “society is desensitized and unable to have compassion for and understand how torture victims live,” says Hubbard.

When Hubbard’s not busy working to “Restore Dignity to the Human Spirit,” which is CVT’s motto, he spends time with his wife, his 28-year-old daughter, and his grandchild in his home near Lake Nokomis. Hubbard has two sisters and is close to his family. I asked Hubbard about the effects working with torture victims on a daily basis has on his home life—if he brings his work home with him. He said he tries not to, but his work does affect him. He says he probably views life through a different lens than most people. I think Jon Hubbard has a respect for and connection to human life that mainstream American citizens may never realize.

Hubbard sees communities of terrorized people coming together with a strength they didn’t know they had. I asked Jon what else keeps him going day after day. He answered, “A lot of torture victims do get better, but most will never fully recover,” but, he added, “I’ve witnessed victims go from a pre-morbid state to recovery in which the nightmares become fewer and other post-trauma effects decrease.” I read a quote of Hubbard’s from the College of Education and Human Development alumni website, “The Link,” in which he stated: “Torture is a dark subject, the work is challenging, and the days are long, but for every heartbreak you also see people in the community pulling together and rising above. If you’re going to feel beat up and dead tired come Friday night, you have no question that the reasons you’re so tired are really good.”

Hubbard took a 16-year hiatus from formal education before deciding what he was destined to do for work, but those 16 years were rich in “life education.” They were an education that one can’t get in academics alone. His experience and interest in human rights, social justice and political activism helped him realize that there was and is a desperate need to find relief for our brothers and sisters who walk amongst us here in the U.S., and in 132 countries around the world. Jon Hubbard understands the “realness” of “torture.” It is something most people do not understand and don’t want to understand. However, remember that the person standing next to you waiting for the bus in the cold may be a victim of torture, and they don’t want to hear you say, “It is torture waiting for the bus in the cold.”