XVI. Metaphors for Solitary Confinement in Notes from Underground and Notes from the House of the Dead

1. “They were almost obliterated socially. They became permanently withdrawn, and they lived as outcasts—regularly set upon, as if inviting abuse.”1 2. They “lose the ability to initiate behavior of any kind—to organize their own lives around activity and purpose. Chronic apathy, lethargy, depression, and despair often result. . . . They have difficulties with ‘irrational anger.’ Many . . . become consumed with revenge fantasies.”2 3. “He observed himself becoming neurotically possessive about his little space, at times putting his life in jeopardy by flying into a rage if a guard happened to step on his bed. He brooded incessantly, thinking back on all the mistakes he’d made in life, his regrets, his offenses against God and family” (about Terry Anderson’s experience of solitary confinement as a hostage of Hezbollah in Lebanon).3 4 “Paranoia, aggressive fantasies, and impulse control problems . . .”4