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Unexpected Elements

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

The news you know, the science you don’t.

The news you know, the science you don’t. Unexpected Elements looks beyond everyday narratives to discover a goldmine of scientific stories and connections from around the globe. From Afronauts, to why we argue, to a deep dive on animal lifespans: see the world in a new way.

The Science Hour

Unexpected Elements: Solitary confinement

Solitary Confinement.  Credit:  Getty Images.

05/01/2014

Solitary confinement

BBC World Service - Unexpected Elements, Solitary confinement

Psychologists and political prisoners reveal how to stay sane in solitary confinement

Psychologists and political prisoners reveal how to stay sane in solitary confinement. Plus hikikomori - helping young Japanese people who withdraw from society.

Solitary confinement can have a powerfully detrimental effect on someone's identity and mental health - it has been called a form of torture. Claudia Hammond talks to ex political prisoners about their experiences and how they dealt with living in such inhumane conditions. She hears advice from Professor Craig Heaney who works with prisoners in Supermax prisons in the US and psychiatrist Professor David Alexander who has worked with many hostages.

In Japan hundreds of thousands of young people withdraw from society for years or even decades. They are known as hikikomori. Claudia Hammond travels to Tokyo to discover more about this mysterious condition and why it is so prevalent in Japan.

(Photo: Solitary Confinement. Credit: Getty Images.)

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