To Isolate and Alienate

The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers by Jan de Baen

Isolation is a technique used to re-shape the mind, the thought and the deportment of a human being 

It is general knowledge that the environment surrounding an individual affects his mindset, it moulds the way he thinks and it influences his conduct; therefore the best way to alter what was perceived as his original settings is to isolate him from his loved ones, friends and acquaintances; subject him to certain conditions (usually unpleasant ones); watch him change his behaviour bit by bit; monitor him as he slowly loses his mind (or appear to do so, at least) and then right before he yields to lunacy, the controller (or any appointed authority figure) will place him in a sieve where the flour of his being will be sifted and result into a refined product (separated from any coarse particles). 

• This is true in prisons – when an inmate misbehaves he is retrieved from the general public and thrown into the solitary in order to change his demeanour.
• This is also real in military recruitment – soldiers are placed in bases (outside their normal environment) and subjected to harsh conditions to be moulded at the image of the military.
• Another example of isolation is the Secret Services Recruitment Process – once they target a subject, recruit him and invest time & resources on him, isolation is not only a method used to re-shape the element’s mind, thought process and behaviour, but also a stress test to see at what point the subject breaks (if he breaks at all). 
• A more common example is rehab centres – addicts must be isolated from their natural environment in order to get clean and gain new habits (at least in theory). 

Alienation is said to follow isolation 

The subject withdraws himself from himself, from his behavioural patterns and becomes indifferent. This indifference means not apathy. It rather signifies a metamorphosis: the individual optimises his mental capabilities to the point of becoming water. What once seemed to be, no longer is. What once seemed to be important, no longer does. Being water was the ultimate goal, being water is the current element. 

Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless–like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash! Be water, my friend. - Bruce Lee

To Isolate & Alienate is a very interesting morphing method; however the challenge is to know exactly when to stop applying it on a given individual (specially when he defies the norm; becoming, thus a challenge to keep on pushing); to acknowledge that some individuals do not have a breaking-point and to fetch ways of how to use someone with such characteristics.

Isolation can be applied to several fields, but there is no certainty that the outcome will be translated into a positive metamorphosis (i.e. becoming water) in all of them.