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The Documentary; Freedom of the Mind

The Documentary: Freedom of the Mind

French-Colombian former FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt, Credit: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

04/03/2014

Freedom of the Mind

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Freedom of the Mind

Ingrid Betancourt explores how people’s minds can be free while they are in captivity

Ingrid Betancourt, who was held captive for six years, explores how people’s minds can be free even while they are in captivity.

Ingrid Betancourt was held captive by the infamous FARC rebels in Colombia and endured six years as a hostage in the jungle - sometimes chained by her neck to a tree. Betancourt, who had been kidnapped while standing for the presidential election, was subjected to extreme deprivation. She was repeatedly mocked and humiliated, both by her captors and fellow captives. Yet she survived and not least because she was determined to hang on to her identity.  

Through Ingrid’s story and the stories of others, Freedom of the Mind explores how the mind reacts to enforced captivity.  She talks to people who have been held in isolation for long periods, but who managed to find an escape within the boundless worlds of their own imaginations.

Can the mind be free even though the body is trapped, held captive and forced to live through terrible hardship?

(Photo: French-Colombian former FARC hostage Ingrid Betancourt. Credit: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

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