From Inquisition to AI

It’s been a while since I posted an update on the InterPsy project. No worries: things are going well. Over the past months, I’ve been working on two journal articles and well as ‘the’ book. The final goal for this project is to publish a book (or to at least have written part of it) about the long-term history of criminal interrogation and its entanglements with psychology. Working subtitle: “Criminal interrogation from Inquisition to AI”.

My plan for this book is slowly gaining shape. This is how I currently envision the table of contents:

1. Nobody Expects an Inquisition: Inventing Interrogations
2. Bodies That Matter: Detecting Guilt and Deception
3. Arousing Affects: Developing Interrogation Strategies
4. Never Confess: Learning Counter-Interrogation
5. Rise of the Machines: Instruments and Experiments in the Interview
6. Coffee & Cake: Experiencing Modern Examinations
7. Brainwash: Freud and Pavlov in the Interrogation Room
8. You Have the Right To Remain Silent (But It Would Be Weird): False Confessions and Human Rights
9. The Confession Tapes: Did They Really Say This?

While the earlier chapters will focus on the early modern period and the later ones on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, most chapters will cover the entire period from the late middle ages to the present day to some extent. The geographical focus is on France and Germany, embedded in a larger European (and for the twentieth century Euro-American) context.

Much writing remains to be done, and I will undoubtedly revise the table of contents several times over the coming months (revising tables of contents is one of my hobbies). But there is a plan – and I’m excited to make it happen.

Is something crucial missing in this table of contents? Do you have an Opinion? Or are you just enthused? Let me know in the comments, on Bluesky or via email!