Tickle torture

Tickle torture is the prolonged use of tickling to abuse, dominate, harass, humiliate, or interrogate an individual. While laughter is popularly thought of as a pleasure response, in tickle torture, the one being tickled may laugh whether or not they find the experience pleasant. In a tickling situation, laughter can indicate a panic reflex rather than a pleasure response. Tickle torture can cause real physical and mental distress in a victim.

Tickle torture can be used as an alternative to outright violence. Tickle torture can be used as an interrogation technique, by utilising prolonged or intense tickling until discomfort causes the victim to release the required information. It can also be used as a display of dominance, as it could involve physically overpowering an individual. This can be seen as humiliating, as the act of being tickled can produce involuntary reactions, such as squealing or kicking.

Historical examples

A painting at the Rothenburg criminal museum, depicting criminals placed in stocks. The town people would tickle them and put salt on their feet so goats would lick the feet.

In ancient Japan, those in positions of authority could administer punishments to those convicted of crimes that were beyond the criminal code. These punishments were called, shikei, which translates as ‘private punishment.’ One such torture was kusuguri-zeme (擽り責め).

An article in the British Medical Journal about European tortures describes a method of torture called the "goat's tongue" in which a goat was compelled to lick the victim's feet because they had been dipped in salt water. Once the goat had licked the salt off, the victim's feet would be dipped in the salt water again and the process would be repeated. However, it remains unclear if this method was ever used in practice as it is only described in the 1502 Tractatus de indiciis et tortura by the Italian jurist and monk Franciscus Brunus de San Severino – a treatise that actually cautioned against torture in general – and while it seems clear that Franciscus Brunus had not made up this practice, the issue is left open whether the inclusion in the treatise is based on hearsay, (reliable) eye-witness accounts, or personal experience. This uncertainty does not preclude this anecdote from being repeated in popular culture, such as in a 2013 episode of the British satirical quiz show QI.

An 1887 article entitled "England in Old Times" states, "Gone, too, are the parish stocks, in which male offenders against public morality formerly sat imprisoned, with their legs held fast beneath a heavy wooden yoke, while sundry small but fiendish boys improved the occasion by deliberately pulling off their shoes and tickling the soles of the men’s defenseless feet."

A 1903 article described an immobilized suicidal patient at the Hudson River State Hospital who was tied to a bed for his own safety. While he lay helpless, the patient's feet were tickled by one of the hospital attendants, Frank A. Sanders. "Sanders is said to have confessed that while intoxicated he amused himself by tickling the feet and ribs of Hayes and pulling his nose." Sanders also gave his restrained victim a black eye. Another hospital employee came upon Sanders while he was entertaining himself at his patient's expense, and Sanders was brought before a grand jury.

In Vernon Wiehe's book Sibling Abuse, he published his research findings regarding 150 adults who were abused by their siblings during childhood. Several reported tickling as a type of physical abuse they experienced, and based on these reports it was revealed that abusive tickling is capable of provoking extreme physiological reactions in the victim, such as vomiting, urinary incontinence, and losing consciousness due to inability to breathe.

See also

• Death from laughter
• Rusalka
• Tickle fetishism