Most people understand to some extent the ill effects of extreme isolation, but what they do not realise is that even a reasonably stable person can fall into madness and hallucinations in a frighteningly short amount of time. Studies have been done and stories have been written, but isolation affects each individual differently. Anyone who disagrees must have not done their research. After hearing what isolation truly does to the mind, then can we make our stances. The entertainment industry has even picked up on this horrible, yet fascinating topic. In The Yellow Wallpaper (a movie which is based on the short story of the same name by Charlotte Perkins) a seemingly normal woman who is suffering from slight postpartum depression is prescribed …show more content…
She survived almost 10,000 hours with little to no human contact in a dark cramped cell. In her own account Shourd says, “In the periphery of my vision, I began to see flashing lights, only to jerk my head around to find that nothing was there,”(qtd. in Bond) While this story seems a bit extreme and very specific with “flashing lights” being the only accountable hallucination we look to a study done by psychologist Donald Hebb at McGill University Medical Center in Montreal. Hebb’s subjects were normal, randomly picked college students. They were fitted with translucent visors, cardboard cuffs, and when they needed to lie down they had a U-shaped pillow to use. Even after just a few hours the subjects became restless. They started to crave stimulation and began to think out loud and sing to break the monotony. The most alarming effect though was when hallucinations started to set in. What began as simple shapes, lines, and points of light soon evolved into fantastical scenes like a procession of squirrels with sacks over their shoulder or a parade of eyeglasses. Some even experienced sound hallucinations like a piano or a choir. Even after the experiment their perception was