Thursday, September 13, 2007

Solitary Confinement

What are the psychological effects of solitary confinement? Why do these occur and what does knowledge about these psychological effects reveal more generally about human social psychology?

We have all heard of Genie, the poor young girl confined by her parents to her room. and of Victor, the 12 year old boy who wondered out from the woods in Southern France and who was then forced to live and act as a 'proper' human being. Both never fully recovered psychologically from their experiences.

Although extreme, these two cases shed light on the severity of the effects social isolation and solitary confinement can have, both socially and psychologically.

For my blog I am planning on looking at less extreme cases of solitary confinement such as in prisons and correctional facilities. Does anyone have any other examples of modern day legal solitary confinement situations?

2 comments:

Shaye Fulthorpe said...

Hi Ali,

I am loving the stuff you have written in your blog. It is very useful for some research I am doing on Nature vs Nurture beause the cases you have highlighted seem to suggest that nurture is very important to how people will behave. I am particularly interested in the Genie case. Do you know any thing else about it or know where I can find more information??

From Shaye

James Neill said...

Just letting you know that I've posted a few links which might be helpful: Solitary confinement