Waterboarding

Next stop is right behind you, a bucket and cloth used for waterboarding. Playing quietly in the background is the sound of someone gasping for air as you hear water splashing against the ground. You have reached the waterboarding section. Waterboarding was seen as the Water Cure for melancholy and really began to take off in popularity due to Herman Boerhaave. His ideology behind the method was to take a person suffering with melancholy and make them go through this hideous act in order to catch them off guard and invoke fear into them. Once this was done, he claimed that it would cure the patient of the melancholy within their body. The practice was used at Bedlam, an institution, very commonly and was actually considered a standard.

When considering waterboarding today, nearly everyone agrees that it is a form of torture. A Rory Cox article goes into detail about how the now considered form of torture is set up. He explains that the way that it is preformed today includes laying the victim in a position where their head is lower than their body. This is then typically followed by strapping them down onto a sturdy table or board to hold that position. A cloth or rag is then placed over the mouth and nostrils of the victim and water is poured onto the piece of fabric. This gives the sensation that the person is drowning. This is used as a way to try and get people to talk and answer questions, typically in a war situation. In an article written by Dr. Stephen N. Xenakis, he explains his findings that he discovered after interviewing and working with several people who were detained and suffered from waterboarding. He describes how many now suffer from PTSD due to the traumatic event and some show possible signs of brain damage. Many of the truths of the aftermath of waterboarding is kept a secret however, as the government tends to hide much of the truth regarding these aggressive tactics. When seeing how this has evolved from the melancholy ways, it's uses have drastically changed. Northumbria University conducted a research paper to discuss the idea of the water cure. In this article they discusses how many people believed in the water cure as they thought by using water, it would bring people closer to nature, and hence back to their normal ways. There were many different ways that this water cure would be utilized, either waterboarding, bathing, or spas. While all of these ideas have lasted in some way into today's world, they have taken many different forms. When looking at it through a melancholy view, waterboarding has no conceivable way of assisting in the curing process. If anything, it would result in PTSD resulting in what some may consider more melancholic behavior.