Biderman's Chart of Coercion

Several American prisoners of war at a Korean POW camp
Biderman's Chart of Coercion originated from Albert Biderman's study of Chinese psychological torture of American prisoners of war during the Korean War.

Biderman's Chart of Coercion, also called Biderman's Principles, is a table developed by sociologist Albert Biderman in 1957 to illustrate the methods of Chinese and Korean torture on American prisoners of war from the Korean War. The chart lists eight chronological general methods of torture that will psychologically break an individual.

In spite of the chart's original Cold War application, Amnesty International has stated that the Chart of Coercion contains the "universal tools of torture and coercion". In the early 2000s, the chart was used by American interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. It has also been applied to the psychological abuse used by perpetrators of domestic violence.


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