Edgework, institutions and enhanced interrogation

The Enhanced Interrogation programme was a medicalised interrogation programme that was designed by the United States in the wake of 9/11. It is now widely recognized that the Enhanced Interrogation programme engaged in some activities that were, at the least, tantamount to torture. The programme was designed by Psychologists and overseen by other professionals, including medical professionals. This article argues that the Enhanced Interrogation programme displayed many of the features of what Sociologists refer to as Edgework. It demonstrated voluntary risk-taking by health and other professionals; this risk-taking pressed up against catastrophic outcomes across multiple dimensions; risks were taken for the purposes of escaping a death-saturated macrosocial context; and the health professionals in the programme were highly skilled. The article argues that a new form of Edgework can be detected by studying the programme, which the article refers to as ‘Institutional Edgework’.