What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain
newyorker.com
What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain
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Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain
#2I found this part interesting.
"Many prisoners find survival in physical exercise, prayer, or plans for escape. Many carry out elaborate mental exercises, building entire houses in their heads, board by board, nail by nail, from the ground up, or memorizing team rosters for a baseball season. McCain recreated in his mind movies he’d seen. Anderson reconstructed complete novels from memory. Yuri Nosenko, a K.G.B. defector whom the C.I.A. wrongly accused of being a double agent and held for three years in total isolation (no reading material, no news, no human contact except with interrogators) in a closet-size concrete cell near Williamsburg, Virginia, made chess sets from threads and a calendar from lint (only to have them discovered and swept away)."
It seems that isolation works like a virus attack, slowly rendering the mind incapable of working properly. Somewhat like a mental Gom Jabbar. Some people at least seem to fight back by consciously creating stimulation. Hack and Counter Hack.
Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain
#3Interestingly (with reference to another thread), "solitary confinement" is a necessary requirement of some forms of meditation. Of course, that confinement is by choice, and of a duration chosen by the participant. There's no doubt that the lack of communication has an effect on the brain; whether this effect is always deleterious seems disputable.
Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain
#4"Everyone’s identity is socially created: it’s through your relationships that you understand yourself as a mother or a father, a teacher or an accountant, a hero or a villain."
This drew my attention in particular. Is this true for all people, truly, including devout introverts, or is it merely a generalization? Does it perhaps have varying degrees of applicability based on how intro- or extroverted someone is?
Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain
#5"Everyone’s identity is socially created: it’s through your relationships that you understand yourself as a mother or a father, a teacher or an accountant, a hero or a villain." This drew my attention in particular. Is this true for all people, truly, including devout introverts, or is it merely a generalization? Does it perhaps have varying degrees of applicability based on how intro- or extroverted someone is?
No, it's not true for all people. The vast majority of people have socially-created identities, but a very small percentage of people can consciously strive to ground their identities in something else, e.g., the here and now. Devout introverts still likely have socially created identities. The applicability varies based on the degree of conscious effort applied to change identity.
Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain
#6Interestingly (with reference to another thread), "solitary confinement" is a necessary requirement of some forms of meditation. Of course, that confinement is by choice, and of a duration chosen by the participant. There's no doubt that the lack of communication has an effect on the brain; whether this effect is always deleterious seems disputable.
That's the beauty of the whole thing. I've seen grown men who appear to be perfectly happy break down and cry like children after only three days of meditation. Isolation puts you in very close contact with yourself. You can't distract yourself any longer, so you're left with your own thoughts, repeating delirious patterns, second guessing yourself, second guessing your life, and your environment. If you do meditation wrong (succumb to these patterns instead of returning to your breath), it can drive you insane, literally inducing psychotic lapses.
Yet if you do it right, your mind become incredibly calm and alert. Concentration becomes easy, your mind snaps into gear with a tiny push. And you end up playing a game that's trivial to learn and unbelievably difficult to master. Slowly, you peal away layers of your psyche, becoming intimately familiar with it in the process, until you get to the pristine awareness your mind inherently has.
There is wisdom and strength in isolation. You just have to learn how to get through the demons in the darkest corners of your mind.
Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain
#7"Everyone’s identity is socially created: it’s through your relationships that you understand yourself as a mother or a father, a teacher or an accountant, a hero or a villain." This drew my attention in particular. Is this true for all people, truly, including devout introverts, or is it merely a generalization? Does it perhaps have varying degrees of applicability based on how intro- or extroverted someone is?
I don't think it's a matter of introversion vs extroversion. Also, I don't think it's generally true.
Certainly, a large part of our identity is socially created. Yet, at the same time, there is a pretty large kernel that's there whether or not we're in our usual social circles, whether or not we change our career, location, etc. And, for some, that kernel is more important than the socially-dependent aspects.
I'd add that some parts of that kernel override whatever environment we're in. A gentleman is still a gentleman in the gutter, as they say. Just because you're in the company of thugs doesn't mean you're going to define yourself as a thug.
So, while we certainly do adapt our behaviour to the role that we're presenting, it is ultimately just a role - not our identity.
Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain
#8For an overview of the context of the state's research on, and use of, solitary confinement I'd recommend the book "Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control": http://www.amazon.com/Brainwash-Secret-History-Mind-Control/.... Despite the sensationalist title, it's a sober, wryly humorous look at the evolution of psychological coercion techniques in modern states.
Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain
#9Duplicate:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=565661
Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain
#10The keyword here is Freewill. I think you could isolate for months if it is your own choice. But if you are forced to be isolated for 3 hours it makes a huge difference.