Deliberate amnesia and/or repressing memories with hypnosis

Dec 08, 2011 11:47

Setting: Modern day Washington, DC with some slight wiggle room as to the technology because it involves a high-tech shadowy government organization that would have access to some cutting-edge experimental drugs ( Read more... )

~psychology & psychiatry: amnesia, ~woo-woo

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Part 2/2 hagar_972 December 8 2011, 20:00:44 UTC
While posthypnotic amnesia is the most promising, I can think of several issues.

* We're talking two weeks. What happens when the interrogtors ask her what has she done during this time? Smart, competent interrogators are as manipulative as human beings get. Chances are, they'll be able to tell that there's a hole in her memory ( ... )

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Re: Part 2/2 utsusemia December 8 2011, 21:06:33 UTC
Oh my gosh, this is the best comment in history! Thank you so so much ( ... )

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Part 1/2 (reposted for order) hagar_972 December 9 2011, 10:18:43 UTC
Bullet-point version ( ... )

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Part 2/2 hagar_972 December 9 2011, 10:19:13 UTC
In a more-or-less standard "white torture" protocol, a person would be left in a fixed-lighting room with meals served at irregular intervals and without human contact. (And of course, not quite enough food and water, no access to showers, no change of clothes.) (Alternatively, have the lights turn on and off randomly.) 72hr are enough to obliterate a person's biorhythm and wreck seriously psychological havoc (may be referred to as "breaking", but I hate that lingo) on a person who has not been specifically prepared for this. (e.g. soldiers of some units.) You can tamper it down to just the fixed lighting and no human contact - and after 72hr, a person who has not bee prepared for this will have very noticeable insomnia, anxiety and depression issues. And it's not that a prepared person will be unaffectedd - "resilient does not mean resistant" is a good motto: they'll have less effect and they'll be able to better conceal the effects, but they won't be unharmed ( ... )

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Re: Part 2/2 utsusemia December 13 2011, 03:51:41 UTC
Hey! I'd love to see them, if you wouldn't mind sending them to me. My email address is the same as my lj username at gmail. Thanks!

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Oh, and to be clear: direct side effects hagar_972 December 9 2011, 10:29:37 UTC
Long-term effects from those drugs are not likely. Her biorhytm will be messed up and she'll take weeks to months to get over the disrupted sleep cycle and insomnia (this comes with either anxiety issues, depression or both), and her GI tract will also be messed up. (How badly and in which ways depend on the specific drugs.) Messed up GI tract results in (other than severe discomfort, pain, vomiting and irregular feces) dehydration and electrolyte imbalance - hangover, but serious and potentially a health hazard ( ... )

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Re: Oh, and to be clear: direct side effects corvideye December 9 2011, 17:57:15 UTC
Just speculating, but maybe light therapy (lamps used for Seasonal Affective Disorder) could help get her circadian rhythm back on track? It's effective for jet lag, people who work night shift, various other sleep cycle disturbances.

These are awesome answers, BTW!

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Re: Oh, and to be clear: direct side effects hagar_972 December 9 2011, 18:04:25 UTC
Light therapy might help (i'd also consider the lighting conditions she'd been kept in), and possibly melatonin, coming to think about it - and if she's on birth control, the timing of that can help as well. (Hormons: they all interact.)

And thanks!

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