Psychopathological reactions to solitary confinement were extensively
described by nineteenth-century German clinicians. In the United States
there have been several legal challenges to the use of solitary
confinement, based on allegations that it may have serious psychiatric
consequences. The recent medical literature on this subject has been
scarce. The author describes psychiatric symptoms that appeared in 14
inmates exposed to periods of increased social isolation and sensory
restriction in solitary confinement and asserts that these symptoms form a
major, clinically distinguishable psychiatric syndrome.
Abstract Teaser