Psychological Effects of Isolation in Solitary Confinement

I was reading up a bit on solitary confinement and started wondering what exactly causes someone to develop psychotic symptoms when involuntarily socially isolated. Some things I considered were:

The human naturally discerns what is reality by constantly being reassured by others. I imagine that when someone is completely isolated from others, he begins to question whether or not the things he sees, hears, smells, believes in, etc. are real.

We all have a general understanding of freedom. Being in a locked, dark, cell eliminates almost every freedom we enjoy. This lack of freedom could easily cause depression, anxiety, fits of anger, and even suicide.

I have never been forced into any kind of isolation even remotely as severe as solitary confinement, so I couldn't truly begin to understand the psychological effects. The closest I've been to isolation has been trips to remote locations to camp by myself; I imagine it is completely different when you don't have the option to join society again.

If anybody has ever studied this, been in a similary situation, or even just want to give me some ideas, I would love to know exactly what goes on in the mind of someone completely isolated from others.

I can tell you that being the kid in class no one wants to talk to, and in general not getting out much can have a massive affect on a person.
I've noticed significant changes in people who have mostly stayed inside or been attention deprived, when that changes.

I think that some people will react stronger to the solitary confiment thing then others, as with all things of course. But if your mental chatter runs unchecked within you, the solitary confinement will be hard on you and things of the past can come back to haunt you, especially when you are a convicted criminal maybe?

Fighting against a unchangeable situation like solitary confinement for a certain period of time will only drive you nuts. Problem for controlfreaks.

being confronted with yourself and not able to make peace is a problem for a lot of people.

Humans are basically social 'animals' so being seperated from the group can be nasty i think.

But the biggest problem is perception, if you can quiet your mind in some way you can preserve your sanity by switching your chatter off.

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I think there's two basic effects of solitary isolation. First, isolation from feedback: no one to talk to or bounce ideas off; no effect from action. Second, isolation from stimulus: no new occurrences or interesting things to observe and think about.

The first effect can be seen by voluntary social isolation, eg, hermits, withdrawing from society, social outcasts, etc. The second, separation from an externally-stimulating environment, is more difficult to self-impose -- should anyone wish to do that.

The enforced combination of the two is particularly cruel and dangerous to mental health.

I was subjected to two months of solitary confinement in the summer of 2003. I won't bore you on the details of what led me to find myself locked in a 8x8 rubber room with nothing - not even a toilet at my disposal - and my only interaction with the outside world being the small service door built into the cell door to provide me with meals three times daily.

At first, it was comforting. Then the door opened and they demanded I take my "medication". When it finally kicked in, the room was a psychological nightmare. I eventually passed out from the strain of trying to assimilate my surroundings and incarceration.

It took about a week for the reality of the situation to kick in. I quit fighting back the thoughts justifying why I didn't deserve to be there. I slept a lot and sat in silence for hours debating on how I was going to write the experience into my life story.

I eventually began to hallucinate around the third or fourth week.

I suppose the greatest effect of sensory and social deprivation of this sort is that you are alone with your own thoughts. You are, in simplest terms, going to have to rework this new situation into your reality. There is no option. There is no audience or advice to help you rationalize things - you're on your own. All you have is what's in your head, and maybe that's what got me through that period in my life.

A lot of people in today's sensory filled world are probably unaccustomed to confronting themselves directly. Some people might have an easier time of it if they know they're going to be isolated beforehand.

I would think much of this is related to basic instinct. It would seem that by studying and comparing these same affects on caged animals show these similarities.

I personally hate zoos because I sense this by watching them. Many in prison appear to act like caged animals. Breaking their will or spirit seems to be the objective, but, apparently fails.

I think prisons make the mistake by allowing prisoners to interact and form gangs to work against 'the sytem'. The prison system needs a drastic reform in their incarceration methods.

By allowing other 'higher mind' resources such as a computer and or library, these people might actually be more useful and productive while in prison and when they 'if ever' get out. Some obviously need isolation from others due to their personality types.

Suicide is 'as if' the ultimate sacrifice to gain their freedom. A schizophrenic will probably isolate themselves from others as if to gain their freedom, but, supposedly have a high mortality rate.

"You can lead a horse to 'water' but, you can't make it drink" seems to apply.The internet has been helping me to analyze and rethink things out by being another source of 'water' during my isolation on disability, even though, I still feel as if I'm still dying.

One other thread and post had suggested that the prison system should have a noose in these cells to give 'certain prisoners' the choice for freedom. Releasing these people by suicide to me is 'as if' to release their demons to find another host.

Our society creates many of these demons. Prisons apparently don't do enough to cure them. They seem as if to be more like demon factories.

I would imagine suicide would, over time, seem like a fantastic alternative to this confinement. Most people think that it's not worth living if you can't do anything outside of a tiny dark space with no interaction with an outside world.

Hallucination would undoubtedly be something most people in this situation would develop over a prolonged period of time. If you are kept from reality, forming your own reality seems like a logical thing to do. The mind is not meant to be withheld new experiences, and humans thrive on relationships.

It would also probably be very hard to cope with reality once released, say, after months of isolation. Reminds me of Cast Away, only multiplied tremendously because of a lack of interaction with the environment. I would probably find a place on the wall and make it my friend.

General Eyes, I would love to hear more about your situation, if you don't mind saying. Either through u2u or on this thread would be fantastic, nothing is better than first-hand experience.

I understand and know that fortitude of the MIND is all that is needed in any situation where one is isolated in what ever scenario that they may come across in life in whatever perception of malevolence or benevolence that maybe.
As one merely has to, "know thyself" and as such a bit of self introspection is quite profound to oneself when one finally is able release the shackles of Societies distractions. Then one can enhance all of there mental abilities in an exponential way. Disciplined Focused intent of the mind and one can literally move mountains at will.

Nosce ti ipsum

[edit on 6-8-2008 by Epsillion70]

Epsillion70: I see where you're going, but is it possible to 'know thyself' and be fully content with yourself enough to be able to withstand the mental (and physical) stressors that come from this severe type of isolation?

I agree with your thoughts on introspection, it is what keeps me sane when living in a society I rather despise. But again it is a completely different story once you are incapable of interaction with anyone or anything other than yourself, darkness, and walls.

reply to post by Alexander_Supertramp


From my own experience and understanding of this type of scenario, Alexander.
You do find that after all the negative effects have dissapated from ones ego mind then you actually start wanting to resolve the scenario as best as possible in the situation with your subconscious mind .As anyone knows, "panic" in any situation of percieved physical flight or response tends to disengage all the positive constructive effects of the Human anatomy.
So when the Subconscious can be made the Chief of Staff then things start happening in a totally dynamic way. ie; When parents find their siblings trapped under vehicles in Automobile accidents. Through something deep within themselves they find superhuman strength to lift that 4000lb vehicle of them.
However not being able to logically comprehend the incident afterward etc.

Going back then to your question you do tend to deal with the situation on a totally differenyt moded level than what you are use to. ANd as such your tolerances and coping mechanism do change accordingly to the percieved situation and you do tend to live from outside your body as such

It will certainly force you to question your sanity after a time...

Isolation is both your best friend and your worst enemy. "Paradoxically", it is all one and the same, anyway.

Sanity is subjective. Say one group of persons sees going to work in a sterile official environment every day to support themselves and hitting the town's nightlife on weekdays for recreation as a "sane" life. This group is known as the "status quo", and is maintained by a society controlled by officialism.

Another group of persons sees sanity as chaos and anarchy and doing what you feel with little or no compassion for normal members of the "status quo", and sees the status quo as "crazy". They are the minority.

Many other opposition or minority "group mentalities" exist, and they usually see other opinions as either "wrong" or "crazy"

Yet an individual person who's perhaps seen aliens, general weirdness (in terms of the "norm"), and had massive spiritual upheaval or "enlightenment", leading him/her to turn inward and remove himself from that society, from those major and minor group mentalities... would see almost all of those groups as "crazy" as well, when at the same time, those groups would view him as "crazy".... In essence, everyone is "crazy" to somebody.

Solitude will cause you to become a world within yourself, often rejecting other people's worlds, as well as them rejecting yours... and depending on the severity of isolation and the steadfastness of the individual mind's perception of "real", I guess the limit to the "weirdness" which can happen if the mind is left to fend for itself is only governed by the state of mind he came in with in the first place.

As steadfast as anyone is in their "peace of mind", very severe solitude would cause definite changes in the state of mind before, as opposed to afterward. Things created in the mind's eye cannot be easily put to rest. It where our experience happens. But what isn't a creation of the mind, in the end? Until we have discovered exactly where the mind resides and what its true purpose in this experience is, we'll never be able to judge sanity accurately.

reply to post by GENERAL EYES


I wonder that it took you several weeks! The effect to cause hallucination is usually within hours. I suspect that you found the event to eventually be theraputic, otherwise I would assume that the effect would be devistating.

I say this because you sound quite lucid now, you do not appear to be devistated. I do not know what state you entered in. But I assume that it may have been turbulent, and this may have empowered you to remain self stimulated far longer than most, shortening the full isolation experience in a sense.

Maslow showed that isolation of infants causes death. He did his research with monkeys. Complete sensory deprivation in adults against their will and without their understanding of what is being done, has been known to cause death and insanity within minutes.

There is a beautiful book about this experience by Jack London, The Star Rover. You can get it as an EBook for free.

[edit on 7-8-2008 by Cyberbian]

Is it possible that some people do okay in solitary confinement? For example, there is the universal icon of the hermit, living alone with nothing but his or her thoughts, out of choice. And there is another icon of a zen master, forever alone on a hill top, or a monk who has taken a vow of voluntary silence and isolation.

I would think the effects of solitary confinement depend A HUGE amount on the particular situation you are in. For example, being forced into confinement, versus will going willingly.

Under certain circumstances, it may be an incredible way of achieving a type of enlightenment.

You are never completely alone, are you? (If you count the rest of the universe, that is....)

Originally posted by Harman
I think that some people will react stronger to the solitary confiment thing then others...

Definately. I love being isolated and by myself (out bush), and find myself irritated easily when around other people. Yet my friend's wife, who has 4 kids and is used to loud noise all the time, can't stand being alone for even 5 minutes because it's just "too quiet".

Cyberbian.

I think one reason the hallucinations took so long to manifest may have been do to a rather introverted childhood. I was quiet content as a child to sit in silence and go about my business writing, drawing, or silently playing with my toys in the privacy of my room. I had no brothers or sisters to contend with, so outside of the school environment, there was very little social interaction.

In short, I'm usually very comfortable being alone and with my own thoughts.

I'm flattered you think me well spoken, but part of me will never recover from the experience. I have seen firsthand the inside of one of our "correctional facilities" and I have been exposed to not only the types of personalities who populate said institution, but also that of those who operate said institution.

You would be surprised at how robotic some of the guards can be. It was never explained to me why I was being isolated. It was simply forced upon me.

Up until that point I had been quiet and docile in my previous surroundings, trying to make sense of what exactly I had done wrong that landed me in that situation. I couldn't find a rational answer, so I just accepted my fate without question.

The next thing I know, I'm being hauled out of my cell and placed in this room.

As far as getting more "in depth" about the experience, forgive me if I prefered to abstain from mentally re-creating that scenario. It did affect me profoundly and killed a part of my faith in the System.

It terrifies me to go back to that point in time and try to recall the details of the experience.

It was dehumanizing, to say the least.



[edit on 8-8-2008 by GENERAL EYES]

I would imagine that a reasonably creative person would develop some form of hallucinatory reality in which they would be interacting with their own mind. It's hard to explain what I mean, but I suppose it would be similar to developing multiple personalities, in that there would be separate distinct characters that would arise and the confined person would have conversations with them, ranging from escape plots to plans for revenge or even off-the-wall philosophical discussion and arguments. If you ever end up holed up somewhere for a few days in isolation and happen to be taking certain drugs, you can replicate this scenario. Let me know what you find.

How can you define solitary confinement?

As I'm sure some few members of our own ATS may have done this... does sitting on you're couch reading the internet, watching TV, and replying to forums for a month strait with NO outside contact count as solitary confinement?

As a friend of mine I know... does playing an mmorpg for more than a month on end ALONE, with only contact with ones mother for food count as solitary confinement?

Does being a hermit in the woods and only interacting with the animals count as solitary confinement?

For all of the above reasons I think we can say no...
The blogger will believe he is talking to people on the forum...
The gammer will think he is talking to the people in game...
The hermit will believe he is talking to the birds and bugs...

So solitary confinement in our prison system has got to be THE WORST form of punishment EVER! IMO

Brings light to the phrase "In solitude we are least alone."

I remember my first day of school (playschool/nursery). I was about 4.

It was terrifying, I don't know how or why such a phobia of people developed in me but it has never left me and I am now 25. I only experience such fear however when I am forced into a situation, if I go willingly it is less.

As such my entire life has been in voluntary solitude. My phobia even prevents me from feeling comfortable around my brother and sister and parents (who I have lived with all my life).

It's the hermits life for me

At first it was just a quiet childhood, occupying myself in whatever way I could. However at about 13 the depression started and grew worse and worse peaking at 23.

I didn't even have the personal freedom to kill myself so just burned and burned.

Oh it was beautiful, of course that's not what it felt like at the time. But my suffering then awakened my kundalini and I now treasure every terror that has ever and will ever torment me.

Sensory deprivation can certainly be hell but there is a Tibetan mediation known as the dark retreat in which one is deprived of all senses for three days.

I would love to experience that, what I could learn of myself, what I could learn of everything...

I now laugh at the feelings of loneliness I used to feel. Alone? Don't be silly, that's just not possible, there is only the universe in it's infinite entirety. Lonelinessand sorrow are unfortunate delusions.

Twisted-Inside-Out

It's difficult to deal with in an enviroment where you have no basis for timing an enforced self discipline of activity. As soon as there is anything regular you can schedule off you can self dicipline to enfoce activity (time to think about loved ones, time to do push ups, time to pray).

Hostile enviroments produce a base reaction, fight or flight. In aa constrained and violent enviroment, fight may carry too much risk and flight is only possible by withdrawing and isolating as much as possible. It's a survivaal strategy that is rational if you are in regular risk of beating, sexual abuse etc.

There is always the yearning that it was not so and that happier times may come, loved ones were in contact or still alive.

The imposition of beating or other stress peaking events can only be dealt with IMO by fixing a poing on a wall floor or ceiling and staring at it without blinking. For me that lets the mind 'numb'.

Even occasional contact with loved ones via the telephone becomes strange, as if they are drifting in another reality that may never be reached.

Noise generated by other people becomes an intrusion and a source of fear from which flight is not possible.

Isolation can dog even those in the closest and mose dense living enviroments, prisions, dormitory schools, military, slums. If there is a violent and brutal regeme, withdrawing, not drawing attention and enforced isolation helps survival.

Responsibilities at work may impose degrees of social isolation.

Only a self imposed discipline can help sustain mental health.

People who work do so to feed themselves and often dependents. They do not subscibe to a belief in others being crazy they do it because they have to. That is life. Adding stress to their situation by behaving 'as you wish' and disrupting sleep or privacy is not 'living you life' - it's being a pain in the neck. It's amazing how the selfish and irresponsible wish to rationalise and denegrate those who work. What feeds them? The effort of others.

My experience with enforced solitary echo most in Londons 'star rover'. When there is no where to escape you withdraw inside the mind. Even cigarette burns or kicks cannot but slowly wake you..

Never underestimate mans capacity for cuelty. These events still trouble me and placed a blanket of fear in my life that even 23 years later I cannot eliminate.

Solitary confinement is a form of torture that dlights those who impose it.