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I recently read Life & Death in Shanghai, by Nien Cheng, who was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in solitary confinement during the Mao years. The only reading material was Mao's Red Book, and an occasional propagandistic newspaper. No heat in the cold winters, no A/C in winter, daily rations of dry rice and some cabbage or sweet potato, or a thin soup of rice. And a blaring loudspeaker outside her cell door! No human contact except with the guards.
At one point, trying hard to get a confession (for something she never did), they handcuffed her, and for 7 days, day and night, she wore those handcuffs, even to sleep and eat and drink.
I read this with total amazement, how someone could survive this, even for a week!!!
Quite simply, I just don't have the psychological make-up to even have lasted 2 days thru this ordeal. Slam my head into a wall, until I bled to death! That's what I would have done!!!
How about you? Your psychological make-up would have gotten you thru an ordeal like this? At what point would you have called it quits?
I think the blaring loudspeaker would mess with my mind more than the solitary confinement. Though 6 years of solitary is a bit much. Tibetan monks kept in solitary in Chinese jails for years are unphased, though. Many of them spend 3+ years locked into small meditation cells as part of their training. Buddhism teaches using the mind to overcome any adversity.
I spent a year and a half in the hole I actually did bette there than in gp although there were six men that after a month there tried to hang themselves so not everyone can deal with it.
Honestly I think I would prefer being in solitary confinement as opposed to being in the general population of a prison. That being said I am not sure how well I would handle sensory deprivation.
I'd prefer solitary to general pop also. I'm not much of a people person anyhow. At least you wouldn't have to deal with the anxiety and fear of getting a beat down or stabbed. I'd just do an awful lot of daydreaming, like I'm not really here, I'm on a mountain or at the ocean. I'm old enough I've had plenty of memories to revisit and relive. I suppose I'd know how many cement blocks are in my cell, and probably give them all names.
I would not last long. I am an introvert but I still need some human interaction or at least some "action."
Solitary confinement is a sick practice and should be abolished; those who do get out of prison and experienced it are probably more disturbed and dangerous than they were going in. No, thanks!
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