The traumatogenic triad of annihilation anxiety, powerlessness, and loss were introduced in a study of Holocaust survivors (Garwood, 1996). These three psychic experiences have been found to be the most potent ways to torture a human being and their use has been systematised by a national police force to overwhelm the psychic defences of political opponents of its regime. The torture is designed to force victims to give up oppositional political activity and/or to become informers. Psychological examination of the victims post-torture demonstrated an extraordinarily high rate of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms supporting Garwood's coining of the phrase traumatic triad to describe the effects of this method of torture.