Is long-term solitary confinement torture?(newyorker.com)
newyorker.com
Is long-term solitary confinement torture?
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande
8 comments
I think its unfair if you're being held without charge or trial. If you've been sentenced, it might be cruel punishment or even torture but at least you can accept your fate.
Assertions such as those in the first paragraph are offensive -- as though we introverts weren't real or normal humans. I don't know from first-hand experience, but as bad as solitary sounds, being confined with other people sounds even worse, given how my brain is wired.
I am an introvert myself, but even us introverts interact with other people daily. If you voluntarily spend days on end utterly alone with no human interaction, you're unusual even for an introvert
Sure. But if it came down to lots of time alone or lots of time with forced contact, which would you pick? They both sound bad to me (what do you expect from being incarcerated?); the baked in assumption that what's bad for most humans is bad for all humans is what bothers me.
the baked in assumption that what's bad for most humans is bad for all humans is what bothers me.
The implication, or rather question here, is not about what one person likes vs. another person. We are all entitled to opinions, choices, etc., and we all have different ones.
The article is discussing whether a total absence of social interaction is bad for humans not because we just don't like it, but because it is necessary and requisite for your brain to function & survive, the same way a total absence of water is bad for us. Would it be so bothersome if I suggested since a severe (aka total) lack of water is bad for most humans, it's bad for all humans?
The implication, or rather question here, is not about what one person likes vs. another person. We are all entitled to opinions, choices, etc., and we all have different ones.
The article is discussing whether a total absence of social interaction is bad for humans not because we just don't like it, but because it is necessary and requisite for your brain to function & survive, the same way a total absence of water is bad for us. Would it be so bothersome if I suggested since a severe (aka total) lack of water is bad for most humans, it's bad for all humans?
"But if it came down to lots of time alone or lots of time with forced contact, which would you pick?"
As terrible as prison is, almost no one actually prefers solitary confinement (introverts included). It's easy to say that you can handle solitary confinement until you end up spending practically 24 hours a day alone (23 of which are in one tiny room) for even a month or so.
As terrible as prison is, almost no one actually prefers solitary confinement (introverts included). It's easy to say that you can handle solitary confinement until you end up spending practically 24 hours a day alone (23 of which are in one tiny room) for even a month or so.
Even this text based communication on HN is a form of human interaction. I'm not sure complete isolation is something anyone is genetically predisposed to prefer.
Not really relevant to your point, but introversion vs extraversion most likely isn't determined by genetic factors. It's essentially a choice (albeit one that was made at such a young age that it's impossible to change).
I think you're underestimating the power of sensory deprivation.
If by 'baked in assumption' you mean 'documented scientific research' then I think we'll just have to agree to disagree.
Why do you have to make this about you? That was just a general statement about how the vast majority of people is. If everyone reacted like you, we could never make a statement about anything since there's always an exception to anything one might say.
It's analogous to me being offended if someone says dogs have 4 legs because my dog was born with only 3.
It's analogous to me being offended if someone says dogs have 4 legs because my dog was born with only 3.
[deleted]
Some of Harry Harlow's experiments were really... fucked up.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Pit_of_despai...
> when six-month isolates were exposed to younger, three-month-old monkeys, they achieved "essentially complete social recovery for all situations tested."
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Harry_Harlow#...
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Harry_Harlow#...
Forced seclusion on any being that naturally seeks contact alters the mind and is therefore a form of torture.
What an idiotic statement All forms of punishment and/or rehabilitation "alters the mind", they are not all forms of torture.
[deleted]
These people are turned into schizophrenics, tattooing their faces, painting walls with feces (if you are offended, please research the effects of solitary confinement).
Solitary confinement inmates go Insane. To what degree, depends on the duration and the person. As a deterrent, it is warranted and probably (no statistical info) effective in the short term. As a long-term "treatment" for rehabilitation, it is NOT effective.
If we are in fact, trying, to rehabilitate criminals into society, solitary confinement just creates a dangerous creature.