Charles Dickens on the Eastern State Penitentiary
Inspired by the Panopticon design of Jeremy Bentham, the Eastern Penitentiary is of radial design, with seven wings extending from a central administrative hub. In Dickens’ time, the “Pennsylvania System” was one of strict and absolute solitary confinement for the duration of the sentence. One hour of exercise in a solitary exercise yard was permitted each day, and soon after the initial incarceration prisoners were allowed to have some means of handicraft – a shoemaker’s last, a small loom.
The rather crude and simplistic device of solitary confinement was designed, of course, to achieve a psychological transformation, and Dickens’ imaginative depiction of the mental state of the prisoners from the onset of their imprisonment is a delight to read. Dickens also sketches a portrait of the facial expression of the typical prisoner:
“It had something of that strained attention which we see upon the faces of the blind and deaf, mingled with a kind of horror, as though they had all been secretly terrified.”
Most helpful for the purposes of the present survey is the description by the jail administrator of the demeanor of prisoners who are about to be released:
“ ‘Well, it’s not so much a trembling,’ was the answer – ‘though they do quiver – as a complete derangement of the nervous system. They can’t sign their names to the book; sometimes can’t even hold the pen; look about ‘em without appearing to know why, or where they are; and sometimes get up and sit down again, twenty times in a minute. This is when they’re in the office, where they are taken with the hood on, as they were brought in.’ ” [1]
The challenge in the area of social, psychological and neurolinguistic control today is to achieve the same effect without the time and expense of a lifetime of solitary confinement in an expensive institution.
Schwarzendruber, Nichiren. “New Dimensions in Affective Modulation Regime (AMR): Survey and Critique,” THE JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND NEUROLINGUISTIC CONTROL, 57, 3 (Oct 1997), 321-346.
The rather crude and simplistic device of solitary confinement was designed, of course, to achieve a psychological transformation, and Dickens’ imaginative depiction of the mental state of the prisoners from the onset of their imprisonment is a delight to read. Dickens also sketches a portrait of the facial expression of the typical prisoner:
“It had something of that strained attention which we see upon the faces of the blind and deaf, mingled with a kind of horror, as though they had all been secretly terrified.”
Most helpful for the purposes of the present survey is the description by the jail administrator of the demeanor of prisoners who are about to be released:
“ ‘Well, it’s not so much a trembling,’ was the answer – ‘though they do quiver – as a complete derangement of the nervous system. They can’t sign their names to the book; sometimes can’t even hold the pen; look about ‘em without appearing to know why, or where they are; and sometimes get up and sit down again, twenty times in a minute. This is when they’re in the office, where they are taken with the hood on, as they were brought in.’ ” [1]
The challenge in the area of social, psychological and neurolinguistic control today is to achieve the same effect without the time and expense of a lifetime of solitary confinement in an expensive institution.
Schwarzendruber, Nichiren. “New Dimensions in Affective Modulation Regime (AMR): Survey and Critique,” THE JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND NEUROLINGUISTIC CONTROL, 57, 3 (Oct 1997), 321-346.
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