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What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain

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Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain

#21

Post by rgrieselhuber »

rjurney wrote: post #18
plinkplonk wrote: post #2

I 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. defe…

During 10 days of silence and meditation, I had entire movies play in my head, in great detail, line by line, scene by scene. Movies I could normally barely remember. I didn't have to try, it just happened. In fact I was trying not to think. My mind wanted any kind of content to play. I think it happens naturally.

Fascinating. Makes me wonder what evolutionary necessity drove this need to constantly have content playing?

Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain

#22

Post by jyothi »

rgrieselhuber wrote: post #21
rjurney wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During 10 days of silence and meditation, I had entire movies play in my head, in great detail, line by line, scene by scene. Movies I could normally barely remember. I didn't have to try, it just happened. In fact I was trying not to think. My mind wanted any kind of content to play. I think it happens naturally.

Fascinating. Makes me wonder what evolutionary necessity drove this need to constantly have content playing?

Amusing. Guess its how 'being socially engaged' has evolved.

It wouldn't surprise me if many of us develop similar traits of isolation even when cut off from internet too not just physical interaction.

Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain

#23

Post by rjurney »

rgrieselhuber wrote: post #21
rjurney wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During 10 days of silence and meditation, I had entire movies play in my head, in great detail, line by line, scene by scene. Movies I could normally barely remember. I didn't have to try, it just happened. In fact I was trying not to think. My mind wanted any kind of content to play. I think it happens naturally.

Fascinating. Makes me wonder what evolutionary necessity drove this need to constantly have content playing?

Maybe its more conditioned than an evolutionary thing? We've all been barraged with media and social interaction 16 hours a day for most of our lives and most of us never stop thinking all day, and even dream much of the night.

Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain

#24

Post by dcx »

joe_adk wrote: post #20
dcurtis wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a guy named Tehching Hsieh, who voluntarily isolated himself in a cage in his New York City apartment for a year. The cage and pictures of him are on display at MoMA. http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/322

Anyone remember the name of the Japanese game show where the comedian was locked in a room for (n) and had to win his way free via magazine giveaways? I always thought it was fake/marketing, but an interesting.

Nasubi - http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/nasubi.html

It's like a study of this in action - insane but you can't look away.

Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain

#25

Post by DannoHung »

rgrieselhuber wrote: post #21
rjurney wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During 10 days of silence and meditation, I had entire movies play in my head, in great detail, line by line, scene by scene. Movies I could normally barely remember. I didn't have to try, it just happened. In fact I was trying not to think. My mind wanted any kind of content to play. I think it happens naturally.

Fascinating. Makes me wonder what evolutionary necessity drove this need to constantly have content playing?

Who knows, maybe it's part of the the low-level threat scanning aspect of our nature. Maybe it has something to do with our capacity for self-consciousness, maybe it's a side effect of being sentient.

I somehow doubt that it's a purely socially ingrained tendency though.

Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain

#26

Post by qbit »

rjurney wrote: post #18
plinkplonk wrote: post #2

I 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. defe…

During 10 days of silence and meditation, I had entire movies play in my head, in great detail, line by line, scene by scene. Movies I could normally barely remember. I didn't have to try, it just happened. In fact I was trying not to think. My mind wanted any kind of content to play. I think it happens naturally.

Interesting. Would you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert, in general? I am an introvert and when I did 10 days of silence and meditation, the lack of social interaction was the easiest part for me. In fact, I think it made the whole experience easier for me because it alleviated the pressure to interact with people. I had none of the experiences you mentioned. And I was by no means an experienced meditator.

One thing I've always been really curious about is how an experienced meditator like a Buddhist monk would deal with forced solitary confinement. I think they would probably do much better than the average, untrained person. Now that would be a really interesting experiment.

Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain

#27

Post by khafra »

swombat wrote: post #7
HalcyonMuse wrote: post #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?

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 ad…

Research shows the environment overrides the kernel: http://lesswrong.com/lw/4e/cached_selves/

Re: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Brain

#29

Post by rjurney »

qbit wrote: post #26
rjurney wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During 10 days of silence and meditation, I had entire movies play in my head, in great detail, line by line, scene by scene. Movies I could normally barely remember. I didn't have to try, it just happened. In fact I was trying not to think. My mind wanted any kind of content to play. I think it happens naturally.

Interesting. Would you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert, in general? I am an introvert and when I did 10 days of silence and meditation, the lack of social interaction was the easiest part for me. In fact, I think it made the whole experience easier for me because it alleviated the pressure to interact with people. I had none of the experiences you mentioned. And I was by no means an experienced meditat…

I consider myself an introvert, but people tell me I never shut up. So uhh... somewhere in between? :) Not sure why it took the form of movies, but most people do have trouble ceasing thought, as I'm sure you experienced.

Yeah, if I was isolated I would use it to my advantage and meditate. Perhaps I would exit enlightened :)

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