#foolishly-snowy

rhrjdkslfnbtn;g,bdkfhekfbrk

hm perhaps one day! It might be a bit weird to record since I do page work in batches (thumb the whole scene -> add borders/dialogue/speech bubblse -> line all pages in the scene -> go back and finish them up one by one) but I'm not opposed to the idea.

hmmm why does my computer do this to ur innocent post

So I think part of the reason you’re struggling to find any information is a combination of academic paywalls and the dubious recording of results for some of these experiments.

 My understanding is that there are several data sets for sensory deprivation but the sources I have access to cover three: Hebb’s experiments with volunteers in a ‘Baldwin’s box’ set up, Cameron’s abuse of around 100 mental health patients using similar set up and Lilly’s experiments using volunteers in a tank. Cameron’s notes are only really ‘helpful’ for demonstrating that sensory deprivation quickly and thoroughly fucks up the human brain. They establish a timeframe where permanent damage is likely and show what that damage is likely to look like.

 You can read about that in the masterpost here.

 It is worth stressing that consent and being able to stop something make a huge difference to our experience of it. It can, quite literally, change the amount of pain we feel. Experiments with sensory deprivation and solitary confinement both confirm that volunteering for something harmful increases the length of time we’re ‘comfortable’ subjecting ourselves to it.

 For Hebb’s volunteers the main side effect after around 24 hours was extreme disorientation. They struggled to walk down straight corridors. The sources I have don’t report distress in the volunteers. They also don’t report how long it took for the volunteers to re-orient themselves and recover.

 Based on what is reported I get the impression that the volunteers recovered relatively quickly. I can’t say with certainty whether they did struggle with things like light and noise in that initial period. That information just isn’t recorded in the sources I have. What is recorded is a pretty huge lack of coordination and confusion. There might also be some memory problems surrounding time spent in the ‘box’ (it was actually a small room but the term box seems to have stuck.)

 It’s difficult for me to be sure whether the descriptions from volunteers are memory problems or a result of the hallucinations and confusion sensory deprivation causes. Hell it could be all three.

 There aren’t any reports of aggression or violence in the volunteers. At least not that I could find.

 Volunteers from Lilly’s tank seem to have come out of 2-3 hours in the tank kind of… well high. They may have hallucinated but they generally seemed relaxed. Which might be why the tank was re-purposed as a spa treatment. (For those who wish to manipulate their brains I assume?)

 Volunteers from experiments using Baldwin’s Box do not seem to have experienced the same relaxed state. But there aren’t any reports of high anxiety that I could find.

 You do see reports of aggression and high levels of anxiety in some of the ‘experiments’ that were conducted without the consent of the subjects. For instance when Baldwin locked a soldier in one of these boxes and refused to let him out the man kicked his way out of the box and attempted to beat Baldwin. Baldwin’s notes describe the man crying, screaming and begging to be released.

 Cameron also recorded a high degree of distress in the people he was abusing.

 So some of the answer depends on whether we’re talking about a voluntary or abusive scenario. It’s also worth considering that an outburst may not be coherent or coordinated. Which means that it’s unlikely to be effective.

 I am struggling a little here because what you’re asking isn’t really something that’s covered by the dataset. I think it’s plausible. But I also think it’s worth taking a moment to consider the character.

 They’re going to be disorientated, confused and distressed. They’ve probably hallucinated. Their memory might not be trustworthy.

 Do outbursts fit with the character in this state? Does it make sense with the interaction these characters have had previously?

 Is this rescuer/helper someone the victim character has known for a long time and cares about or are they a relatively new acquaintance? What’s the level of trust here and does it come with expectations like ‘why didn’t you save me sooner’?

 Because without clear evidence to fall back on those are good narrative things to base the character’s response on.

 Sensitivity to light and sound would make logical sense. But based on the accounts I think this is more likely to feed in to the disorientation and look like disorientation rather then sensory overload. Less ‘light and sound hurt’ and more ‘I can not interpret this light and noise as things I recognise and speech’.

 I can’t be sure of that though. There’s a real lack of survivors accounts here. Most of what I’ve read is someone else’s impressions or observations of people who were in sensory deprivation (whether it was an abusive scenario or not.)

 That can be helpful. An outside perspective is useful when we’re talking about things that mess with memory and the brain. But there’s a limited amount outside perspectives can tell us about the lived experience. Survivors might have a very different take on this observed disorientation. They might have different ideas about sensitivity to sensory input too.

 I put a lot of emphasis on realism because I think it’s important to know when we’re breaking with reality and to consider what those breaks with reality imply. I think that we need to be more mindful and considerate of real survivors when we write about violence.

 I don’t think we should ignore the fact that most people get their information on torture from fiction rather then the increasing body of scientific studies. Especially when fiction usually falls back on tropes that are not only wrong but wrong in ways that tacitly support torture.

 But I’m the first person to admit that we need more data about a lot of this stuff. There are some questions we honestly don’t know the answers to yet.

 I don’t think we can blame anyone for using the best information they had at the time and making a reasonable guess at the rest. Even if that guess turns out to be wrong.

 So take the information you have, look up some of the sources in the Sensory Deprivation masterpost if you can. Then try to build something that is a reasonable extrapolation based on what you’ve read and fits with the characters you’ve created.

 I hope this helps :)

Available on Wordpress.