![]() ![]() Howard, a psychiatrist with the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery who supervises the testing. In such an environment, say psychiatric experts on isolation, seemingly minor personality quirks or even a slight change in the weather are magnified out of all proportion and can have unpredictable effects on the group's psychological well-being, and conflict flares easily.įor this reason, those volunteering to winter in the Antarctic are screened for personal idiosyncrasies like knuckle-cracking or other nervous habits that might be a source of irritation to others, according to Capt. There will be no new clothes, new movies or fresh food. Rustling leaves, falling rain and animals will all beco me foreign. They will be unable to escape even for the most extreme medic al emergency. They also speak of spectacular auroral displays, starlit nights of incredible beauty and enduring bonds of friendship.Īgain in a few weeks, as the Antarctic summer ebbs and the annual sunset begins over a barren white horizon of ice, the last flight will lift off, leaving 15 men and two women here to their own devices until next Novem ber. They tell of extreme depression, boredom, insomnia, paranoia, sexual frustration. Those who have wintered here almost invariably say it was the worst and best year of their lives. Shurley, a psychiatrist who spent several years studying the denizens of the South Pole. ''Isolation is a kind of stress - it brings out the best and worst in people,'' said Dr. After a recent winter here, one woman required treatment in a mental institution. A major problem has been to learn how best to incorporate women into the previously all-male Antarctic culture. To judge from the experiences of recent winter crews at Antarctic outposts, there is still much to be learned about human adaptation to these rigors. And many psychologists believe the unusual nature of Antarctic isolation - in which a small group of scientists and support personnel is confined to a tiny life-sustaining cocoon surrounded by an impenetrable hostile environment that permits no quick escape - may hold lessons for an approaching age of prolonged space travel and space colonization. Though an extreme example, that night of violence underscores the powerful mental effects of protracted isolation. Well the truth of it is that it can be fun at times but the deep dark winter with hopeless evacuation for eight months is a sheer mental hell.'' He wonders how the crew, afflicted by deep jealousies and divisions, can survive another three months. In the three days of eerie calm that follow ed, Andrew Cameron, the 22-year-old supply man who witnessed all this, reflects in his diary:''Most people would never winter over if they knew what it really is like. It is hours before the mayhem ends, with gashes, bruises and frostbite. Soon he spies his rival for the affections of the station's lone woman and charges with a two-by-four, then runs out into the blizzard. He yells and begins to smash cups wildly. Outside, temperatures dipped to 71 degrees below zero in a blinding blizzard, but inside, emotional temperatures among the crew of 16 men and one woman, after nearly half a year of total darkness, were reaching the flash point.įoaming at the mouth and roaring drunk, a member of the crew who had recently learned of his father's death, piles into the galley in rage. ![]() ![]() 17, 1979, will not get into the official history books, but they were something of psychological milestone in the history of the South Pole. ![]() SOUTH POLE STATION, Antarctica THE events of Aug. ![]()
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