Lonely Madness: The Effects of Solitary Confinement and Social Isolation on Mental and Emotional Health
Carly Frintner
By Carly Frintner
Paper #3 for Neurobiology and Behavior, Spring 2005
Professor Paul Grobstein
I began to research the effects of solitary confinement on prisoners'
behavior while thinking about the ways in which we isolate ourselves
from others, or are isolated by others in our daily lives. I cherish
and am very protective of my own chosen moments of solitude, but I also
know that long periods of time alone can send me into a depressive
state, or make me feel like I'm going crazy. More specifically, a kind
of panic sets in when I realize I'm alone with my thoughts with no one
to affirm or deny the validity of what I'm thinking. When I'm by myself
for too long, I start to question my own understanding of reality—of
who I really am and what the world is really like. I need interactions
with other people because they are such a significant part of how I
understand and enjoy my life and my reason for living. All people seem
to depend on varying amounts and intensities of social interaction to
keep them happy, stable, and sane. This is not surprising given that
human beings are social animals by nature.
Human beings are also naturally curious. Drastically reducing the
amount of "normal social interaction, of reasonable mental stimulus, of
exposure to the natural world, of almost everything that makes life
human and bearable, is emotionally, physically, and psychologically
destructive" (2)
because it denies us the ability to ask questions and seek reasons and
information to form explanations that allow us to understand ourselves
as well as our world and our place and purpose in the world. It is
logical that we feel less stable and secure overall when the things
that our brain and body rely on to connect to and understand our
surroundings are taken away from us.
In class, we have occasionally discussed how we check in with other
people to get an understanding of ourselves. In one extreme example, we
recalled a final scene of the movie "A Beautiful Mind" in which
Professor John Nash asked a student to verify that there was a man
standing there talking to him. Because Nash's schizophrenia often
caused him to hallucinate, he relied on other people to assure him what
he was seeing was not just his own reality, but the reality of the
world (including other people). We all do this to a certain degree,
though probably to check much less subtle information than whether a
person is or is not actually a hallucination.
Out of the more than 20,000 prisoners in the United States, about 2%
are currently living in "super maximum security ("supermax") facilities
or units. Prisoners in these facilities typically spend their waking
and sleeping hours locked in small, sometimes windowless, cells sealed
with solid steel doors. A few times a week they are let out for showers
and solitary exercise in a small, enclosed space. Supermax prisoners
have almost no access to educational or recreational activities or
other sources of mental stimulation and are usually handcuffed,
shackled and escorted by two or three correctional officers every time
they leave their cells. Assignment to supermax housing is usually for
an indefinite period that may continue for years." (2)
I have sometimes gone for hours and even days with very minimal human
contact. As a result, I experienced anxiety, depression, and a feeling
of being disconnected from the world around me, even though I had
complete freedom to go wherever I wanted. Prisoners who are isolated
for prolonged periods of time have been known to experience
"depression, despair, anxiety, rage, claustrophobia, hallucinations,
problems with impulse control, and/or an impaired ability to think,
concentrate, or remember." (2)
Studies have also shown that isolation can cause "impaired vision and
hearing... tinnitus [(ringing in the ears)], weakening of the immune
system, amenorrhea [(absence of menstrual periods in women)], premature
menopause... and aggressive behavior in prisoners, volunteers and
animals." (1)
Previously healthy prisoners have "develop[ed] clinical symptoms
usually associated with psychosis or severe affective disorders" (2) including "all types of psychiatric morbidity." (4) Many have committed suicide.
Individuals do vary in how well they can deal with living in isolation, however. (4)
For prisoners with pre-existing mental or emotional disorders, living
without normal human interaction, physical and mental activity and
stimulation can aggravate their symptoms to levels equivalent to
torture. (2), (3) In one complaint
filed against the Connecticut Department of Correction in August 2003,
social isolation and sensory deprivation drove some prisoners to "lash
out by swallowing razors, smashing their heads into walls or cutting
their flesh." (3)
It is difficult if not impossible to pinpoint the exact reasons why
social isolation and sensory deprivation in solitary confinement
situations causes mental and emotional breakdown in prisoners. However,
in addition to the stimuli and interactions they are denied, we might
also consider how people's minds are affected by others controlling
every aspect of their lives, from where they are and how long they will
be there to how much food they get and when, to light and noise levels,
to what possessions they are allowed to have, to when or if their
clothes, bedding and rooms are cleaned, to when and if they get to have
fresh air.
How does the absolute denial of freedom, the denial of any kind of
personal power or influence over one's life, affect the way he thinks,
feels and acts? Certainly the impact is different for each person. But
are there patterns across cultures and time in how slaves, prisoners,
people living under a dictator, and children grounded by their parents
react similarly to the denial of freedom? Are the patterns in reactions
solely human, or do they extend to other animals, for instance, animals
that are caged or otherwise restricted in pet stores, zoos or circuses?
Do all animals, including human beings, feel and understand injustice
on some level and therefore react to it similarly? Or are humans
reduced to more stereotypically animalistic behavior when they are
trapped and controlled? "In some states, the conditions are so
extreme-e.g., lack of windows, denial of reading material, a maximum of
three hours a week out-of-cell time, lack of outdoor recreation-that
they can only be explained as reflecting an unwillingness to
acknowledge the inmates' basic humanity." (2)
Can people retain their humanity without the constant affirmation of
their humanity through positive contact with other human beings? How do
human beings' behaviors and thought processes shift when the human
beings around them refuse to accept their shared humanity?
I am thinking more about the brain's needs based on my research on this
particular topic. The physical, mental and emotional effects of living
in solitary confinement seem to be beyond the control of the person
experiencing them. It seems that the brain needs a certain quantity,
quality, or type of stimuli to help regulate, direct and prioritize
thought processes and other brain functions properly. It could mean
that without certain (or enough) stimuli, the level of random activity
in the nervous system increases—such as brain activity that causes
hallucinations.
When inputs are all coming from the same place, parts of the
unconscious experience the same inputted information differently
because they are all interpreting the information with different
randomness. The randomness helps us make connections between sets of
inputted information and our own prior knowledge to ultimately create a
story that explains our situation and surroundings. This story informs
the "I"-function, which allows us to experience and understand the
situation/surroundings personally. (5)
In an environment with very minimal stimulation, such as a prison cell,
the randomness with which the unconscious explores the environment
continues, although it is unclear whether randomization increases when
fewer stimuli are reaching the brain. Perhaps the brain attempts to
compensate for stimuli it is missing by creating stimuli of its own,
that is, by increasing random activity. Either way, when the brain is
not receiving much input from the environment, there is little
information based in reality that the unconscious can focus on or try
to interpret. The story reported back to the "I"-function is more
likely informed by more random connections than real facts about
reality because reality is not offering enough stimuli to make a
coherent story. This helps explain why people often experience mental
and emotional breakdowns and psychotic episodes when in solitary
confinement for extended periods of time.
