ABSTRACT
Torture is an ill-defined concept. Although many assume they understand it based on the influence of media and films, the fact is that the concept of torture (especially psychological torture) is elusive and blurred. This is not an accident. The UN definition of torture is concrete in certain aspects, but intentionally ambiguous in others, due to a belief that a narrow and overly operational definition of torture would allow governments to dodge the definition easily. Thus, this ambiguity served both a logical and political end.
