Mock execution
A mock execution is a method of psychological torture, whereby the subject is made to believe that he is being led to his execution. This usually involves blindfolding the subject, making the subject recount last wishes, or making the subject dig his own grave, and sometimes it can go as far as discharging a firearm near (but not at) the victim. Water-boarding is a form of mock execution in which the victim is led to believe that continued resistance will lead to drowning.
It is hoped that by making the subject believe that he is to be executed they will be inflicted with severe psychological trauma. This may eventually lead to a break down where valuable information could be extracted, or it might act as a warning that future infractions may bring about a real execution.
Alternatively, a mock execution can be carried out where both a "shooter" and a "victim" collaborate with an interrogator who hopes to coerce a statement out of a subject who is forced to watch. Mock executions are popular in films and other entertainment as easy suspense can be created by having the protagonist subjected to what turns out to be only a mock execution.
Autoassassinophilia and mock executions
The small but significant minority of customers of professional dominants that want them to role-play mock executions are presumably people with the paraphilia of autoassassinophilia, in which a person becomes sexually aroused at the thought of their own death at the hands of another.
The protagonist in The House of Yes is an example.
Historical instances
- In 1849, Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky became the victim of a now famous case of a mock execution. This traumatizing experience also shows up in his literary works.
- Reports of mock executions by the US Marines in Iraq have surfaced in December 2004 [1], as the ACLU published internal documents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The documents were written seven weeks after the publication of the photographs which triggered the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
- In the docudrama Gorillas in the Mist, Dian Fossey, primate specialist, performs a mock execution (a mock hanging) on a poacher to prevent him and his followers from further decimating the African gorilla population.
- In the season one episode of The Sopranos entitled Meadowlands, Christopher Moltisanti is the victim of a mock execution at the hands of Russian hitmen hired by Junior Soprano. He is alluded to have defecated himself during the mock execution.