Ego Strength Changes Following Perceptual Deprivation

1 September 1962

journal article
research article
Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in Archives of General Psychiatry

Vol. 7 (3) , 213-217
https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1962.01720030059008

Abstract

Introduction Most research in sensory deprivation has been done with normal subjects. In general, these studies have emphasized stressful and disruptive effects, such as "pseudo-somatic delusions; illusions or hallucinations, . . . impaired ability to concentrate, distortions in time judgment and degrees of anxiety."¹²Reports of "brainwashing" of prisoners of war have also emphasized the disruptive effects of prolonged social isolation and perceptual deprivation on psychological functioning.¹¹ In contrast, investigators utilizing psychiatric patients as subjects have observed more positive and beneficial effects. Azima and Cramer-Azima³exposed 14 psychiatric patients to periods of partial sensory deprivation for an average period of 4 days. In these subjects initial signs of disorganization were followed by positive shifts in mood, release of constructive aggression, and increased attempts at socialization. Similar results have been reported by Harris,¹⁰who placed 12 hallucinating schizophrenic patients in conditions similar to those

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