Hello, I did a lot of researches about the title "above" but, unfortunately, I couldn't find what I exactly need. I have a male character who get's abducted by a gang related to his "old enemy". He is a very single-minded man, very confident of his decisions, and a very... very control-freak, so his enemy wants to break his strong personality & self-confidence by torturing him for days before releasing him so that, after the whole abduction thing, he changes, he becomes less-confident, hesitent, and unable to call the decisions like before. My question is: What type of torture that should be a mix of "physical & mental" that can have such effect on my character. I need it to be both because "his enemy wants to take his revenge from his body as long as his mind". P.S. I don't want it to be a sexual abuse, for many reasons, the most important one of them is that doesn't fit my storyline. I appreciate any help you can offer. Thank you
-starving him and making him have to eat of a dog bowl while people watch is a pretty bad one.stick a collar on him and treat him like an animal,make him bark if he wants something and beat the shit out of him if he tries to speak.water in a bowl too,and randomly hose him down for a 'bath' in either super hot or super cold water just to be an ass.also,keeping him bound,make him feel weak,make sure to call him a bitch and make sure he absolutely feels powerless.and don't forget to let the sadistic audience interact with 'the animal' and laughe at it.make sure there's dim to no lights,excessive darkness,not excessive light is necessary for this one.put him in a cage too,like at one of those horrible puppy kennels,hell,have other dogs in nearby cages if you want. -this ,because there is a so called seperation between man and animal,making us seem superior in certain ways.make him feel lower than a human being and treat him as such.and if he tries anything,sick viciouse dogs on him. That too much?
Can it be done in public? Perhaps the "bad guys" falsley brand him as some sort of sought after disgusting criminal. Then make him wear something humiliating and send him out into some slums where the mob can have their way with him? Have the "bad guys" fake an escape scenario for him where he ends up getting one of his friends killed? Make the bad guys kill civilians based on his ability or lack of to perform certain simple tasks? Has he been trained to deal with torture in any way? Almost any prolonged torture would make most people question themselves for a long time.
The thing is, if this is a serious gang, and especially if this is a relatively young man -- anywhere from 16 into his 20s, almost anything they'd do to him would involve his sex organs, because that is the most effective, most basic way to humiliate him. It's where he's most vulnerable. It's why sexual crimes are so common, because they're about the assertion of power and dominance and about humiliation. That said, it doesn't necessarily have to be sexual abuse, but somehow having his sex organs exposed or maybe somehow showing him in a sexual act, or doing something like having food put all over his parts or pretending to have sex with a stuffed animal or something. There are things you could do that would be humiliating but wouldn't necessarily be sexual abuse or rape. I know this is a fine line, and this is a touchy subject, and certainly not something to be written about lightly. But if you're seriously writing about some sort of gang initiation and exertion of control and humiliation within a group of young men, that's where they're going to go, particularly if the change that comes about changes him that dramatically. The only other possibility would be violence against his family or someone he loved, but that's pretty dark, too.
Sensory brainwashing? The scene in Lost where the kid is subjected to a loud noise and a constant stream of questions on a big screen. Perhaps not realistic for the average gang, but some sort of game where his family is at stake. might work.
Well, it is too much, in a useful way I like the idea of "hose bathing" & the beating if he tries to act without permission & the darkness too, but I don't intend to make this "public" I just want him to be humiliated in front of his captor, that's the basic idea.
Well, I dont want it to be in public, it's a private matter between my character & his captor. I like the idea of the "fake escape" it may works well with the story, specially it involves decision taking & the outcomes of that decision.
Well, I dont want it to be in public, it's a private matter between my character & his captor. I like the idea of the "fake escape" it may works well with the story, specially it involves decision taking & the outcomes of that decision.
Well, he's not in this range of age, he is in early 30s, but that raises a question: Will that work for him if he was in that age?
Well, he's not in this range of age, he is in early 30s, but that raises a question: Will that work for him if he was in that age?
If this guy is so confident and capable then the focus of your "breaking" needs to be on his mind. Bodies heal, unless you remove a body part. And the best way (imo) to reach a person's mind is to find out what is most important to them and then take it away. If you want him to doubt his decisions afterwards, make him part of the problem. For example: Let's say this person has a daughter or a son (or other generic family member) or even a best friend or girlfriend - the gang could let him believe that he had a chance to save them but he is given a choice and it is his choice that dooms them. To be an active participant in the demise of the thing you love most - that is some serious torture. I feel icky now. Who knew this crap was lurking around in my head?
I was thinking about this too, and don't worry we all have this evil ideas somewhere inside our brains! but it's very useful sometimes
Since he is a control freak as you say and has confidence in his decision-making ability, i mostly agree with drusy. Aside from that, what would break him more in my opinion is some sort of game where he has to make decisions whose consequences are applied not to him but to someone else, possibly someone he knows. And more than that there should be a duration where his decisions appear to be all correct and he believes he is winning and then it is revealed that all his decisions were wrong and the other person suffers permanent damage (like scarring or incapacitation or maybe paralysis of sorts) so that it becomes a constant reminder of your caracter's mistakes.
