Dear Jeannie: Sensory and Sleep Deprivation

Dear Jeannie,

Genesis was the first of a powerful race, who came to be viewed as gods by the other race indigenous to that part of the world. Most of this powerful race came up with a plan that would have harmed this less powerful race and Genesis was forced to destroy his own people to prevent that. However, his actions were misunderstood. The people he had protected viewed him as having betrayed the rest of the 'gods,' coming to view him as a somewhat Satan-like figure, and sealed him away with magic. This place he was trapped in kept him in complete sensory deprivation (to the point where he couldn't even feel the breaths he took) and in a state somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness for over a thousand years before he was finally released by mistake. Keeping in mind that he is of a more durable race than humans, what sort of mental effects would be likely to result from such a long period of sensory deprivation and then suddenly being returned to the regular world with all its senses? What would be a believable reaction to being subjected to this by the very people he gave up his own species to save? Not to mention being villainized by them?

Thank you so much for your time,
Sadistic in the Sandias

Dear Sadistic,

It sounds like you might have Genesis in an isolation tank of some sort for over 1000 years. Sensory deprivation is a common form of torture, and it has different effects for different folks, much less a more "durable human." For normal folk, sensory deprivation is actually relaxing and therapeutic, almost like meditation. But extended deprivation can result in hallucinations, anxiety, bizarre thoughts/delusions, and depression. Perhaps Genesis could withstand some of these negatives longer than an average human, but would still have aspects of these symptoms after, say, 100 years. Psychologist Donald Hebb conducted experiments in the 50s and 60s which were recreated in 2008 in the documentary "Total Isolation." You can watch the almost 50 min show in its entirety here, which may give you additional ideas. I'd Google Hebb, as well. Good luck!


Dear Jeannie,

Kat spends her nights in the Dream World, a world where missing parents are brought together with their children. Kat's been visiting her father, a soldier, for almost four years now. However, the Dream World only exists in dozing. It feels like sleep, but leaves Kat feeling as if she only dozed through the night. Apart from difficulty concentrating and crankiness, how would this affect Kat after four years? What would sleep deprivation do to her, if anything? Also, at the end of my novel, she realizes her subconscious made up the Dream World to help her cope with the loss of her father. Is it plausible for her to invent such a complex world? 

Anonymous


Dear Anonymous,

Strange that your question follows Sadistic's! And fascinating story line. Sleep deprivation can cause multiple issues for folks, like memory problems, weakened immune systems, increase in the perception of pain, and depression. Kat might even act like she's intoxicated. Studies have shown that sleep deprived people who are tested by using a driving simulator or by performing a hand-eye coordination task perform as badly as or worse than those who are under the influence. So you could probably use that in your characterization of her. Your plausibility question is an interesting one for sure. The brain is capable of hallucinating loved ones after they die (you should read my grief posts), and coping with death differs for everyone and could involve elaborate dream sequences for sure. So no, I don't think its impossible. I think how you write it would indicate whether the reader believes it to be so. Thanks for writing in, best of luck.

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T3 - Post-Cult Trauma

This week's Therapeutic Thought is from Julia M. Reffner, who commented on my post Pick My Brain without Having to Write In ... "I would love to see something about cults and the lasting emotional effects on those who leave them."

One of the things to be aware of that might help when talking about cult involvement is how similar cultic abuse is to domestic abuse. Since I just finished up a series on domestic violence, that will already give you a head start into figuring out the lasting effects of abuse in general.

Just as an aside, a person doesn't set out to be in a repressive cult, just like no one decides, "Hey, I think I'll marry an abuser." It's not on someone's to-do list. But there are people who might be more susceptible to cults. According to psychologist Dr. Paul Martin, there are three types:

1) Seekers of God looking for a worthy cause or way to serve

2) Lonely or depressed who find a caring community in the group

3) Idolizers of the charisma of the leader or excitement of the movement

Post-Cult Trauma is characterized by a variety of symptoms, depending on the person and type cult they were involved with. Dr. Margaret Singer, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, did extensive research with thousands of former cult members, and she observed intense depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, loneliness, inability to concentrate, confusion, sleep disorders, guilt, loss of identity, suicidal ideation, somatic complaints and over-dependence in a significant number of them. Some even had acute psychosis, meaning they were in need of serious psychiatric care.

As with anything ending that you have invested a part of yourself in, a person leaving (or being forced to exit) a cult will feel conflicting emotions. There are two sides to every coin. People can develop friendships and a sense of belonging in a cult, just as they can have a sense of purpose inherit in the group's mission or ideals. I'm not trying to glamorize a cult, but a person leaving a cult will experience grief over these losses...and that's normal and shouldn't be denied them.

Cults often entrench their members, many times resulting to brainwashing. Upon breaking away the cult, the person will find themselves isolated from others who understood the cult's brand of brainwash (for lack of better terms). They might still adhere to their cultish beliefs and be scared that they might lose their salvation, be cursed/condemned, incur God's wrath, or be susceptible to evil spirits now that they are no longer "protected" by the cult.

An interesting note is that cult members sometimes assume a pseudo-identity in a cult, perhaps taking on a different name or even personality. Occasionally, after exiting the cult, they might slip back into that pseudo-identity, a term called floating. I just ran across this in my research, so I'd google this if you want more information, but it's similar to dissociating.

On the other hand, some people who used to be in cults look at their breaking away as a freedom from oppression. They might have different symptoms, like guilt at what all they did in the cult when they were brainwashed, either to themselves or to someone else.

Other symptoms of post-cult trauma are: flashbacks to cult life--even including actual chanting, being triggered by cultic language used innocently by someone else, etc., simplistic black-white thinking, sexual conflicts, confusion about right v. wrong, spontaneous crying, difficulty holding down a job/managing time, panic disproportionate to one's circumstances, fear of going insane, dread of running into cult members by mistake, hostile reactions toward either the cult of criticizers of the cult, Stockholm Syndrome, and excessive rigidity about even minor rules.

These symptoms can last a couple of months for most people, and usually subside after being reintroduced to mainstream routines and everyday life outside the cult. In a small number of cases, symptoms continue...but I don't have a percentage for you. If you find one, drop me a comment.

Thanks for the question, Julia. It's not too late for you to get your question in if you've got one percolating!

Treatment Tuesday - Torture 101

Today’s assessment comes from Matt. He’s writing about Molly,* whose mother disappeared when she was younger with no explanation, who was then sent away to school a year later where she was betrayed heavily by her ex-boyfriend. When she returned from school, she found her father bleeding to death in the entrance hall. So Molly’s background is pretty traumatic, and gets even more so when she and two companions are captured by the “bad guys” and are being transported to be tortured.

What Matt wants to know is this: With Molly’s latent anger issues from her mom’s disappearance and her ex-bf’s betrayal, and her inherent internal strength from not degrading into a depressive spiral from both, what level of physical/psychological torture could she be expected to endure and recover reasonably well from?

* Names have been changed to protect the fictional.

Which leads us to Torture 101. Thanks, Matt.

As Matt indicated, a person can be tortured physically or psychologically. Both can leave lasting mental afflictions on those tortured. But torture is far more than acts committed against a person or group of people by others. It’s more complex. To quote Wikipedia: “Torture…depends on complicated interpersonal relationships between those who torture, those tortured, bystanders and others. Torture also involves deeply personal processes in those tortured, in those who torture and in others.”

So the first thing I’d ask you is what is Molly’s relationship to these “bad guys?” Are they related to the person who killed her father? To her ex? Her mom? The more relation she has to the torturers, I’d hazard a guess to say the less torture she’d be able to endure from them. (But this is just an educated guess based on what I’ve read and know about human behavior. There is no formula to give you to determine how much she could endure, but we can create one of sorts with simple deductions.)

Then I’d ask what her relationship to her companions is. Are these random people she is forced to be with (a good example would be Shia LeBeouf and Michele Monaghan in Eagle Eye--an excellent use of mind games and psychological torture, actually)? Or does she have some former relationship with them? Are the torturers mostly interested in Molly—and are using the companions to get more info out of her? Or are the bad guys interested in all three of them equally? Based on your answer to these questions, then Molly may or may not be able to endure more or less. (Helpful, huh?) Let’s break it down: If she has a solid relationship with these companions, and the bad guys are using them as leverage to get info out of her, I’d say she’s be able to endure more torture out of her love and relationship for the companions. If not, I’d say the reverse.

I’d think Molly could endure more psychological torture than physical, but you may disagree, depending on what kind of physical condition she is in. The reason behind my opinion is that she has already endured so much psychological trauma…and you’re right. She didn’t spiral into a depression. So Molly is strong mentally. The flip side of this is that maybe she has already endured so much, that the torture could start to crack her.

Here’s a plot twist to consider to make the book riveting and realistic as far as how much torture she’d endure. If you’ve set Molly up to have had a great love relationship with her mother, and somehow during the torture, Molly realizes she could get some sort of information about her mother’s disappearance…I’d say Molly would be able to endure immense torture to gather this info. Make sense? It’s just something to think about, but the relationship between a parent and child is powerful—one of the most powerful out there. Even parents who are awful parents still have unconditional love from their children, even if we don’t understand why. The children still want to be with these parents who treat them terribly. Ask any foster child taken away for abuse or neglect. So even though Molly might have latent anger issues directed toward her mother for leaving, psychologically, the need to know WHY would be so great if Molly thought she could find out. So consider this during your torture scenes. How could you connect the torturers to the mother?

So here is a “formula” for writers to consider when dealing with torture:*

Increased relationship with torturer
+
Increased relationship with companions
+
Increased connection with past
=
Increased amounts of torture endured

* Note: This is strictly in my therapeutic opinion.

Hopes this gives you something to think about, Matt. Thanks for writing in!

This service is for fictional characters only, so any resemblance to real life examples is entirely coincidental. Any other fictional character assessment questions can be directed to charactertherapist@hotmail.com.

Q4U: Have any of you written some torture scenes in WIP? Is so, how did you decide when enough was enough?