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212 THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTHCOLONIAL WAR AND MENTAL DISORDERS213must also be able to break the political barrier and get the prisonerto confess without recourse to electricity-for according tomedical tradition any suffering must be avoided. This is themedical equivalent of "psychological warfare."The scene goes as follows: First of all, the psychiatrist states,"I am a doctor, not a policeman. I'm here to help you." Thusthe prisoner's trust is won after a few days. 33 Then: ''I'm going togive you a few shots to clear your head." For several days all kindsof vitamins, heart stimulants and other placebos are administered.On the fourth or fifth day the Pentothal is injected intravenously.The interrogation begins.Psychiatric Symptoms Encountereda. Verbal stereotypyThe patient continually repeats phrases such as: "I didn't tellthem anything. You have to believe me, I didn't talk." This stereotypyis accompanied by a permanent anxiety. Very often infact the patient is unaware of whether he has given any informationaway. Guilt toward the cause he stands for and the comradeswhose names and addresses he might have given, here takes ondramatic proportions. No reassurance can restore peace of mindto these ruined consciences.b. Blurred mental and sensory perceptionThe patient cannot ascertain the existence of an object. Reasoningis assimilated without making any distinctions. There isa basic indistinction between true and false. Everything is bothtrue and false.c. A phobia of any one-on-one conversation33 We can also mention the case of psychiatrists running the "Presencefran9aise" groups who, appointed to examine the prisoner, started off boastingthey were great friends with the defense lawyer and claiming both of them(the lawyer and the psychiatrist) would get the prisoner out. All the prisonersexamined by this method were guillotined. These psychiatrists boasted in frontof us of this neat method of overcoming "resistance."This fear stems from the acute impression that he can be interrogatedagain at any time.d. InhibitionThe patient is on his guard. He registers a question word byword and elaborates his answer word by word. Hence the impressionof virtual inhibition together with psychological slowingdown, interrupted sentences, and repetition, etc ....It is obvious these patients stubbornly refuse any type of intravenousinjection.Group No.4-After brainwashingThere has been much talk recently about "psychological warfare"in Algeria. We have no intention of conducting a criticalstudy of these methods. We shall merely highlight here theirpsychiatric consequences. There are two categories ofbrainwashingcenters in Algeria.1. For IntellectualsThe principle here is to induce the intellectual into roleplaying.It is clear to which psychotherapy school this refers.34a. Play the game of collaborator.The intellectual is induced to collaborate by establishing a justificationfor his collaboration. He is therefore obliged to live adual personality and play the part of a well-known patriot whohas been taken out of circulation as a precautionary measure.The aim of the operation is to attack from the inside those34 In the U.S. there is a trend toward social therapy. Supporters ofthis schoolbelieve that the plight of contemporary man lies in the fact that he no longerhas a role to play and that he is nothing but a cog in the social mechanism.Social therapy, therefore, allows man to play several roles as part of a genuinerecreational activity. Anyone can play any role and even change roles duringthe course of the day, symbolically substituting for anyhody. Occupationaltherapists in the U.S. apparently achieve miracles in group social therapyamong factory workers. The workers are allowed to identify with role modelsand employer-employee relations are considerably less strained.