Quote Originally Posted by Order View Post
Ah, I never read the book but I think I get the angle.
So, considering what you suggest, the whole resort could be a front. It runs legitimately most of the time until the slow season every year. Actually, the slow season for a tropical island resort would be hurricane season, so that would work out pretty perfectly.
These researchers have a well-practiced method and are attempting to push the subjects into complete insanity where they are incapable of making rational decisions.
This lone survivor could be entirely indiscriminate, insane, but not stupid. He wants to torment others as he has been tormented. I guess, evil for the sake of being evil.
I'm thinking maybe the survivor is seeking retribution, but has lost his mind to paranoia so entirely that he no longer knows who is and is not a part of the conspiracy. Everyone seems like a part of the plan, so he punishes everyone.

It might be difficult to tailor the researcher's experiments to control their subjects. From a writing stand point it would me easier to make their objective to simply document the method of inducing fear and the result in order to create a specific formula which can be applied in any setting to drive a person or group insane.
I mean, if anyone were motivated enough and smart enough to come up with a convincing sequence of events which are both terrifying and would believably cause someone to act a certain way which they wouldn't have, I'd be all about going for it. Unfortunately, I'm not coming up with anything and I don't know if I could. Maybe I'm over-complicating it.
That could be another useful role for the mole, perhaps they're trying different angles of driving people mad to see who ends up most susceptible to suggestion and manipulation, the mole would serve as the provider of that suggestion. The mole could be a psychiatrist himself, maybe even the guy in charge of the entire experiment, understanding the weaknesses of the human mind, and testing the effects of his procedures on making people susceptible to manipulation. As for a motivation, maybe he's trying to prove that free will doesn't exist, and that by controlling the right variables, he can control anyone. That gives it a real scientific angle, as well as a sort of playing God mentality for the researcher.