Psychological punishments are punishments that aim to cause mental pain or discomfort in order to punish an individual. Psychological punishments are usually designed to cause discomfort or pain through creating negative emotions such as humiliation, shame and fear within an individual or by depriving the individual of sensory and/or social stimulation.
Some methods of corporal punishment, such as public flagellation, are designed to have the effects of psychological punishment as a secondary effect to the main punishment and as such the two methods can and are combined. Historically there has not been a distinct separation of pure psychological punishment without an element of physical harm as a formal type of punishment.
Psychological punishments that are particularly cruel and severe may be regarded as psychological torture; for example, the United Nations has stated that placing someone in solitary confinement for periods exceeding 15 consecutive days constitutes torture.
Methods of psychological punishment include:
- Solitary confinement
- White torture
- Public shaming
- Stocks
- Corporal punishments conducted in public
Aims and effects of psychological punishment
Individual
Punishments aim to alter behaviour considered defective or undesirable by trying to associate the behaviour with the feelings caused by an unpleasant stimulus through a process called operant conditioning. Following a behaviour that is deemed undesirable an unpleasant stimulus will be administered to the individual who carried out the behaviour in order to try and induce a negative emotional response. Recovering social status or dignity following a publicly humiliating punishment can be very difficult resulting in a lesser place within the social hierarchy if not an inability to reintegrate within the society resulting in social exclusion. Due to changing public opinions the feature of public humiliation in punishments is now very rare. Should someone observe someone that they may be modelling, or thinking about modelling, their behaviour off of being punished the desire to replicate the same behaviour may be counteracted by the suppressive effects of the potential negative outcomes of the action therefore discouraging the person from proceeding with the action. This is part of the reason why, historically, some punishments have been particularly brutal in order to have a greater deterrent effect - notable examples of this include the executions of Balthasar Gérard or Guy Fawkes. As humans can learn vicariously through observing other people punishment can make for a highly useful tool to deter undesirable behaviour and encourage following social norms.
Ensuring the vicarious effects of punishment are maximised may be done by increasing the social presence of the punishment. Punishments have historically been conducted in public places such as town squares in order to maximise the social presence of the punishment and ensure that word of the punishment could spread in a time before mass media existed. Conducting the punishment in public also helps the society in which it is occurring label the individual being punished as a 'deviant' or untrustworthy individual promoting the exclusion of the individual from society further reinforcing the need for people to conform to the societies norms in order to remain part of the society. Depending on country, prisoners may be subjected to solitary confinement at the discretion of prison guards and it is the most severe non-capital punishment one can receive.
Efficacy
Solitary confinement is a controversial punishment that some claim to be ineffective at preventing undesirable behaviour in prisoners in addition to being inhuman. Additionally it has been well documented that long-term exposure to solitary confinement (or similar conditions) can lead to a variety of mental health issues including self-harming, depression, anger and hypersensitivity which severely impacts the prisoners ability to reintegrate into society once their sentence is complete.