Biderman’s Chart of Coersion
Isolation
• Deprives individual of social support of his ability to resist.
• Makes individual dependent upon the captor.
• Individual develops an intense concern with self.
Monopolization of Perception
• Fixes all attention upon immediate predicament.
• Frustrates all actions not consistent with compliance.
• Eliminates stimuli competing with those controlled by the captor.
Induced Debility and Exhaustion
• Weakens mental and physical ability to resist.
• People...become worn out by tension and fear.
Threats
• Cultivates anxiety and despair.
• Gives demands and consequences for non compliance.
Occasional Indulgences
• Provides motivation for compliance.
• Hinders adjustment to deprivation.
• Creates hope for change, reduces resistance.
• This keeps people unsure of what is happening.
Demonstrate Omnipotence
• Demonstrates futility of resistance.
• Shows who is in charge.
• Provides positive motivation for compliance.
Degradation
• Makes resistance seem worse than compliance.
• Creates feelings of helplessness.
• Creates fear of freedom, dependence upon captors.
Enforcing trivial demands
• Develops habit of compliance.
• Demands made are illogical and contradictory.
• Rules on compliance may change.
• Reinforces who is in control.