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Comic Books
John Constantine: Alright, mate? You come here often? Hello...?
John Constantine: [Inner Monologue] Nothing. He's a vegetable. His markings look Celtic to me. Some kind of druidic shaman, maybe? Whatever this place is, he probably built it to try and cheat death. His own private afterlife. Stupid ignorant bastard. He didn't know he was building himself a prison. Once you're dead, there's no way out... and four thousand years of sensory deprivation in solitary confinement's enough to drive anyone insane.
— Hellblazer: Joyride
Fan Works
""No one should ever be truly alone, Alex. Otherwise how would we stay sane?"
— Kasumi to Alex Kane, Kunoichis Like Us
He had always hated these cells.
Of course, cells were not supposed to be liked by its inhabitant, but in this case he doubted they would be legally accepted by any country that held true to the concept of human rights.
Not that NERV ever cared about those.
The only reason why any normal person didn't instantly suffer claustrophobia the moment he was pushed into the small confinement, barely offering any space that wasn't taken by the hard bed and the cold toilet, was the constant darkness. That was probably the worst psychological weapon the place held; taking away the ability to tell the flow of time, leaving you with nothing to do but to think.
Thinking was something Shinji had done a lot since... since he was brought here. Thinking and worrying.
[...]
Not knowing what happened with Asuka was the worst for him, though. He hadn't actually expected that they'd be allowed to be together, not even that anyone would answer his questions about her. But the longer he had to endure without any notice from her, the more it was driving him crazy.
For about the hundredth time, he mentally noted to himself to apologize once more for the month he had left her worrying and in doubt.
Just how long had he been there now? For all he knew the JSSDF could already be infiltrating the headquarters, aiming for the holding cells, where they'd be an almost as easy target as he had made out of himself that other time. Or perhaps the ruthless soldiers had already been there and hadn't cared about the cells, which would mean that no one was left to ever let them out.
Of course, cells were not supposed to be liked by its inhabitant, but in this case he doubted they would be legally accepted by any country that held true to the concept of human rights.
Not that NERV ever cared about those.
The only reason why any normal person didn't instantly suffer claustrophobia the moment he was pushed into the small confinement, barely offering any space that wasn't taken by the hard bed and the cold toilet, was the constant darkness. That was probably the worst psychological weapon the place held; taking away the ability to tell the flow of time, leaving you with nothing to do but to think.
Thinking was something Shinji had done a lot since... since he was brought here. Thinking and worrying.
[...]
Not knowing what happened with Asuka was the worst for him, though. He hadn't actually expected that they'd be allowed to be together, not even that anyone would answer his questions about her. But the longer he had to endure without any notice from her, the more it was driving him crazy.
For about the hundredth time, he mentally noted to himself to apologize once more for the month he had left her worrying and in doubt.
Just how long had he been there now? For all he knew the JSSDF could already be infiltrating the headquarters, aiming for the holding cells, where they'd be an almost as easy target as he had made out of himself that other time. Or perhaps the ruthless soldiers had already been there and hadn't cared about the cells, which would mean that no one was left to ever let them out.
Janeway: There was no mutiny. Captain Qu had gone insane. We detained him under orders from the senior remaining medical authority.
Chakotay: Most people do go insane if you shut them in an air-lock for ninety-seven days with only a tankful of algae for company.
Film
"If you were in a bathtub for 25 years, don’t you think you’d get a little psychotic?"
—Jane Valez-Mitchell of CNN, Blackfish
"He's a very strange man, abnormally secretive about his experiments, and now for two years he's buried himself in a camp in the Amazon jungle. Who knows what his mental state may be?"
—Professor Kendall on Dr. Alexander Thorkel, Dr. Cyclops
"We've been floating aimlessly in space for one thousand, six hundred and fifty one days, six hours, and nineteen minutes. Over four years on board this ship with nothing to do. No tasks to complete. For over four years, all I have done...is think."
Owen: How long has the animal been in here?
Claire: All its life.
Owen: Never seen anything outside of these walls?
Claire: We can't exactly walk it.
Owen: And you feed it with that?
(A crane lowers a bloody cow carcass into the enclosure.)
Claire: Is there a problem?
Owen: Animals raised in isolation aren't always the most functional.
Claire: Your raptors were born in captivity.
Owen: With siblings. They learn social skills and I imprint on them when they're born. There's trust. The only positive relationship this animal has is with that crane.
Claire: All its life.
Owen: Never seen anything outside of these walls?
Claire: We can't exactly walk it.
Owen: And you feed it with that?
(A crane lowers a bloody cow carcass into the enclosure.)
Claire: Is there a problem?
Owen: Animals raised in isolation aren't always the most functional.
Claire: Your raptors were born in captivity.
Owen: With siblings. They learn social skills and I imprint on them when they're born. There's trust. The only positive relationship this animal has is with that crane.
Diego: So you're just living down here? All on your own? No responsibilities?
Buck: Not one! It's incredible. No dependence, no limits. The greatest life a single guy can have.
Diego: (to Manny) You hear that? This is my kind of place.
(Buck pops up, holding a rock to his ear like it's a phone)
Buck: Hello? No...no, I can't talk right now...Yeah, I'm trying to recover a dead sloth. Heh heh. (sticks his tooth-knife to a tree and gives the "one minute" sign) No, they're following me! I know! They think I'm crazy. Okay...we're going into the Chasm of Death. I'm gonna lose ya...Yeah, I love you too. Alright, goodbye. Goodbye. (throws the rock away and grabs his knife) Okay, follow me!
Manny: (to Diego) That's you in three weeks.
Buck: Not one! It's incredible. No dependence, no limits. The greatest life a single guy can have.
Diego: (to Manny) You hear that? This is my kind of place.
(Buck pops up, holding a rock to his ear like it's a phone)
Buck: Hello? No...no, I can't talk right now...Yeah, I'm trying to recover a dead sloth. Heh heh. (sticks his tooth-knife to a tree and gives the "one minute" sign) No, they're following me! I know! They think I'm crazy. Okay...we're going into the Chasm of Death. I'm gonna lose ya...Yeah, I love you too. Alright, goodbye. Goodbye. (throws the rock away and grabs his knife) Okay, follow me!
Manny: (to Diego) That's you in three weeks.
Literature
For some time now, well, the last two hundred thousand years to be exact, Holly had grown increasingly concerned about himself. For a computer with an IQ of six thousand, it seemed to him he was behaving in a more and more erratic way. In fact, he'd long suspected he'd gone a bit peculiar. Just as a bachelor who spends too much time on his own gradually develops quirks and eccentricities, so a computer who spends three million years alone in Deep Space can get, well, set in his ways. Become quirky. Go a little bit... odd.
—Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers
She lived quite alone and whether the fault was hers or whether the fault was theirs I do not know. And a great deal of time went by and she did not speak to a living soul and a great wind of madness howled through and overturned her languages. She forgot Italian, forgot English, forgot Latin, forgot Basque, forgot Welsh, forgot every thing in the world except Cat - and that, it is said ,she spoke marvellously well.
"I knew a man who began by worshipping with others before the altar, but who grew fond of high and lonely places to pray from, corners or niches in the belfry or the spire. And once in one of those dizzy places, where the whole world seemed to turn under him like a wheel, his brain turned also, and he fancied he was God. So that, though he was a good man, he committed a great crime."
Live-Action TV
Matt: How are we feeling now?
[Virtual Greta is now hiding under her desk, hair frazzled, clothes torn, and barely sane]
Greta: Please. Give me something to do.
Matt: Ready to work?
Greta: Yes. Yes, please. I'll do anything. I'll do anything, just give me something to do!
Your house isn't haunted, you're lonely.
—Ron Swanson, Parks and Recreation
Number Five: You know, I never enjoyed it.
Luther: What?
Number Five: The killing. I mean, I was... I was good at my work, and I... I took pride in it. But it never gave me pleasure. [sighs] I think it was all those years alone. Solitude can do funny things to the mind.
Luther: Yeah, well, you were gone for such a long time. I only spent four years on the moon, but that was more than enough. It's the being alone that breaks you.
Luther: What?
Number Five: The killing. I mean, I was... I was good at my work, and I... I took pride in it. But it never gave me pleasure. [sighs] I think it was all those years alone. Solitude can do funny things to the mind.
Luther: Yeah, well, you were gone for such a long time. I only spent four years on the moon, but that was more than enough. It's the being alone that breaks you.
—The Umbrella Academy (2019), "Number Five"
"I am still here. I can see nothing, feel nothing. You have locked me into hell for eternity. If this is all there is, I would rather die now... Trapped like this, like a sponge beneath the sea! Yet even a sponge has more life than I. Can you understand a thousandth of my agony? I, Morbius, who once led the High Council of the Time Lords, and dreamed the greatest dreams in history! Now reduced to this, to the condition where I envy a vegetable!"
—Morbius, Doctor Who: The Brain of Morbius
"After three months totally alone on the island, it's amazing that John hasn't gone mad. Isn't that right John? Yes, it is yeah..."''
—'Mock the Week, "Things You Wouldn't Hear On a Survival Show"
Music
Is there anybody out there?
"Now the world is gone, I'm just one.
Oh, God, help me.
Hold my breath as I wish for death.
Oh please, God, help me."
— Metallica, "One"
Tabletop Games
What happens if you decide to cut off all contact and live alone in a Horizon Realm? From experience, I know this is a bad choice. Archmages need human contact. Otherwise, it becomes difficult to deal with or understand Sleepers - you might even see them as bugs be studied or ignored, but never really respected. Voormaas cut himself away from the world, deal with only his assassins and the occasional consor: his perspective became alien and unrealistic. When an Archmage's perception is distorted, what does that do to the world around him? A sociopath with godlike power is the ugly result.
—Mage: The Ascension - Masters Of The Art
Solitude and starvation are brutal punishments, but even worse is all that time to think.
Video Games
Take away a man's light, his clothes, his food, his friends, his air, and you leave him with nothing but himself. And for most that is not pleasant company.
—Ranse Truman, The Suffering
Alone alone alone... until the end of my days.
Black. The blackest hole. So black. Sliding all around me. The black...
I'm down in the ground... where the dead men go.
Let me out. Please. I'm begging you. I can't take it in here. I can't fucking take it. I know what it feels like to be forgotten. I can't even remember myself...
—Solitary Confinement Inmates, The Suffering: Ties That Bind
Maiev: You're Insane!
Illidan: Isolation can do that to the mind. Now, after all the long centuries you kept me chained in darkness, it is only fitting I bury you in turn.
Humans can't stay sane in isolation. Gave me a few epiphanies, though.
—Happy Chaos, Guilty Gear -STRIVE-
Visual Novels
"You know, every once in a while, that terror comes back to me. I wonder whether I really have escaped from that hell. What if I actually lost my mind a long time ago... and I'm still in there... just seeing a delusion of us all chatting happily like this? That nightmare still terrifies me. And so, I need to constantly feel... truly feel that this isn't a dream. Hey, are you guys... really... real...? You aren't just a insane delusion I'm having inside that hell... right? Right? ... Right...?"
—Lambdadelta, Umineko: When They Cry Chiru, Episode 6, "Dawn Of The Golden Witch"
Web Comics
Black Mage: We have always lived in the ocean. There is no before. There will be no after. There is no place for time here among the dark, among the alien things that crawl and swim in a sea without light. We are one of them now. We have always been one of them.
Red Mage: Black Mage? You're narrating again.
Black Mage: My companions succumbed to sea madness weeks ago.
Thief: Dude, it's been two and a half hours.
Black Mage: I alone maintain a gimmer of humanity. I fear it is fading fast.
Red Mage: What kind of dark wizard in league with nameless forces of primordial evil are you that you can't even make a successful sanity check versus boredom?
Black Mage: I ignored the pitiable babbling that issued from their misshapen lips. Their wet gurgles, a noise that had once been words, came to and end when one of the things outside assaulted our craft. I welcome death.
Red Mage: Black Mage? You're narrating again.
Black Mage: My companions succumbed to sea madness weeks ago.
Thief: Dude, it's been two and a half hours.
Black Mage: I alone maintain a gimmer of humanity. I fear it is fading fast.
Red Mage: What kind of dark wizard in league with nameless forces of primordial evil are you that you can't even make a successful sanity check versus boredom?
Black Mage: I ignored the pitiable babbling that issued from their misshapen lips. Their wet gurgles, a noise that had once been words, came to and end when one of the things outside assaulted our craft. I welcome death.
"Sartre said 'Hell is other people.' Lucky human. He was never alone."
— Tagii, Schlock Mercenary
Web Original
You know, red, you're a great listener. But I never hear you talk about yourself. Come on, don't be shy, there's no one else around, right? Hahaha, right? Hahaha... hahahahaha...
"I'm sorry, Robert, I'm afraid I can't do that." Hahaha, red, you're hilarious.
Were you married? Kids? Any family at all? Girlfriend? Boyfriend? Come on, red, I won't judge, just... talk to me, please.
Western Animation
"Oh my god, I am losing my mind...it's only been a month...I think..."
— Alucard, Castlevania (2017)
"Back on the moon, I used to snap too. Of course, that was just from soul crushing loneliness."
— Della Duck, DuckTales (2017)
"I don't know what I would've done without you all. Probably gone... [the rest of the crew fade away] crazy."
—Little Cato, Final Space
