Abstract
This chapter explores how indefinite detention in military prisons can be experienced as particularly egregious because it threatens a social— not just physical death. Based on an analysis of 78 interviews with men formerly detained at Guantanamo, the research presented here illuminates the mechanisms through which social death occurred, and the ways in which it could extend beyond confinement into release.
Man is by nature a social animal.... Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god. — Aristotle (Politics)
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© 2015 Alexa Koenig
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Koenig, A. (2015). From Man to Beast: Social Death at Guantánamo. In: Reiter, K., Koenig, A. (eds) Extreme Punishment. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137441157_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137441157_12
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