What can accounts of captivity tell us about how it is for us to be conscious? In this chapter we’ll turn to a discussion about minds and captivity and look at what it is to be captive. You may recall that I researched imagination by investigating former captives’ experiences of solitary confinement. And this meant reading about former hostages and political prisoners, and interviewing four of them. Some of that research is recounted here and related to consciousness more widely. From having reviewed so much material there is an obvious question: can you lock up a mind? Many regimes have wanted to and it is often dissident writers who are taken and held captive, disappeared or imprisoned. So, in this chapter I propose to discuss how it is to be captive for the captive from their point of view. And I will include some excerpts taken from interviews with former captives so that you can hear some of this in their own words.

I believe that where identities are concerned, we are only persons because of the exchanges we make and have made with the lives of others. We are made of the relationships we have with others; these are what make us who and what we are. When we are separated from other people, deliberately isolated or incarcerated, or put in solitary confinement, we may start to disintegrate. But we may also come through it and be renewed by it.