Biderman's Chart on Penal Coercion
(Source: Amnesty International Report on Torture, 1983)

General Method	Effect (Purposes)	Variants
1. Isolation	Deprive victims of all social supports, of his ability to resist. Develops an intense concern with self. Makes victim dependent upon interrogator.	Complete solitary confinement, complete isolation, semi-isolation, group isolation.
2. Monopolization of perception	Fixes attention upon immediate predicament; fosters introspection. Eliminates stimuli competing with those controlled by captive. Frustrates all actions not consistent with compliance.	Physical isolation, darkness or bright light, barren environment, restricted movement monotonous food.
3. Induced debility, exhaustion	Weakens mental and physical ability to resist.	Semi-starvation, exposure, exploitation of wounds, induced illness, sleep deprivation, prolonged constraint, prolonged interrogation, forced writing, over exertion.
4. Threats	Cultivates anxiety and despair.	Threats of death, threats of non-return, threats of endless interrogation attitudes, promise rewards for partial compliance, tantalizing.
5. Occasional indulgences	Provides positive motivation for compliance. Hinders adjustment to deprivation.	Occasional favors, fluctuations of interrogation attitudes, promises, rewards for partial compliance, tantalizing.
6. Demonstrating omnipotence	Suggests futility of resistance.	Confrontation, pretending cooperation taken for granted, demonstrating complete control over victim's fate.
7. Degradation	Makes cost of resistance appear more damaging to self-esteem than capitulation. Reduce prisoners to "animal level" concerns.	Personal hygiene prevented. Filthy, infested surroundings. Demeaning punishment, insults and taunts, denials of privacy.
8. Enforcing trivial demands	Develops habit of compliance.	Forced writing, enforcement of minute rules.