of Soul, sees ghosts. No, she’s not psychic. She suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome after being in solitary confinement for eight months in Tehran.
about solitary confinement and PTSD, I worried the whole “seeing ghosts” thing was too crazy to belive. Would my readers believe my protagonist was really that far gone? But after researching the subject, and learning how truly awful solitary confinement is to
the human psyche, I knew that my character’s internal struggles were similar to many challenges real people with PTSD face.
of Sarah Shourd’s, a 32-year-old hiker arrested by Iranian troops after
straying onto the Iran border. Two months into her incarceration, she began hearing phantom footsteps and seeing flashing lights. She spent most of her day crouched on all fours, listening through a gap in the door. The experience left her with horrible PTSD.
a veteran. There are stories of journalists and television reporters who have PTSD as well, many of whom also experience hallucinations. Months after it happened, one Pulitzer Prize winning journalist kept hearing the voice of an American soldier who’s dead body he had photographed.



Ron Leonard

