SELF-HYPNOSIS TRAINING AND CAPTIVITY SURVIVAL

In February and March, 1973, 566 U.S. military prisoners (POWs) were r eleased from North Vietnam. These men had been POWs for a period of ti me between 2 months and 9 years, with a mean incarceration of 4.44 yea rs. They had faced physical and psychological stress similar to that e xperienced by POWs ft om previous wars: starvation, disease, inadequat e shelter, lack of medical care, interrogations and torture (Deaton, B urge, Richlin & Latrownik, 1977; Mitchell, 1991). By definition, such prison conditions constituted a traumatic experience (Deaton et al., 1 977). However, a unique stress for our POWs in North Vietnam was the a dditional trauma of solitary confinement. This paper reviews the copin g and ''time killing'' activities of U.S. Navy Vietnam POWs who experi enced solitary confinement and tortuous interrogation. This paper also reports the physical and psychological adjustment of our POWs followi ng their release from captivity. Suggestions are made regarding the re vision of the curriculum for captivity survival training programs such as Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) school.