Not in Gotham Anymore: Bioethics of Treating a Torturer’s PTSD Explored in Comic-Book Form

Those who study and treat disorders of the mind―such as neuroscientists, psychiatrists and therapists―are in a position of influence. Their decisions and actions have the potential to impact individuals at the deepest levels by affecting our memories and even how we see ourselves. Such professionals “...occupy positions of intellectual authority,” as Lehigh neuroscientist and artist Ann E. Fink writes. Their choices can have profound consequences.

History, both distant and recent, provides numerous examples of the use and misuse of this power. Consider the continuously evolving Code of Ethics for the American Psychological Association (APA) and the criticism the organization received for its involvement in the post-9/11 torture of prisoners held Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, among others. That the APA spoke out last week in opposition to the U.S. administration’s announcement that migrants detained at the U.S. border can be held indefinitely highlights the importance of ethics to the mental health field.

In her latest paper―written and illustrated as a comic book―Fink, a professor of practice in biological sciences, urges both scientists and clinicians working on mental health issues to think critically about not only the biological meaning but the social meaning of trauma. In “Fanon’s Police Inspector,” published in AJOB Neuroscience, she offers a bioethical inquiry into the social obligations of studying and treating trauma through an examination of a true story told by Martinique-born psychiatrist Frantz Fanon in his 1961 book The Wretched of the Earth.

In the book, Fanon, a French-educated black man who practiced medicine in French-colonized Algeria during its war for independence, writes about a patient: a white, male, European police inspector who is employed in torture on behalf of the colonial government. The inspector who, as Fink writes, would likely meet the current standards of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), seeks help because he cannot stop beating up his wife and children, “...even his twenty-month old baby.” The inspector asks the doctor “...to help him torture...with a total peace of mind.”

In addition to adding an impactful visual element, Fink says that there is something about the comic book form that lends itself to exploring answers to questions that are difficult, both conceptually and emotionally.

“It allows you to start with the big picture, or understanding of the problem, allowing you to see a whole situation just visually,” says Fink. “In the article, you have these questions about the police inspector, how you think about this person’s mental health in the context of child abuse and these very, very heavy things that are happening in the story. And I think a visual flow of it―if you do it thoughtfully―can give you a way to take in the entire situation without having to explain it or argue about it at first.”

The visual narrative that results from the extremes inherent in the police inspector case study offers an access point to understanding broader themes of moral obligation presented to researchers and practitioners on a more regular basis.

At the conclusion of the paper, Fink writes that “...the analysis of PTSD presented here entails moral obligations for practitioners of neuroscience that extend beyond the laboratory or clinic: To address, at its root, the political, gendered and racialized violence that represents the overwhelming causal factor in disorders of traumatic stress. To refuse to support or participate in practices that exploit and brutalize individuals and entire cultures. To social change that prioritizes these commitments.”

She acknowledges both the difficulty and the importance of confronting these issues in the history of the brain sciences.

“It is a call for people to think carefully about how they do research, how they write about it, how it’s applied, how they talk about identity,” says Fink. “Up until recently, those in neuroscience didn’t have to be very socially conscious. We did not have to educate ourselves about the interactions of science and social identity. But researchers must develop that kind of critical consciousness. It is a call to clinicians as well to grapple with these issues.”