The Dangers of Space Fatigue
July 16th, 2008
Before going on a long space voyage or traveling to the 30th century, make sure that you are familiar with the stages of Space Fatigue:
 First, impatience. |
 Second, irritability. |
 Third, confusion. |
 Fourth, delusions of grandeur. |
 And finally, catatonia. |
|
The treatment is positively medieval: trepanation. Basically, the doctors are drilling a hole in the skull to let the bad influences out. Sure, they coach it in terms like “scalpel rays” and “remove the pressure”, but don’t let that fool you — the doctors of this “great medical foundation” of the future are proposing a treatment for Sun Boy right out of prehistoric times.
Of course it could be worse, Sun Boy could be space crazy..
Admittedly, drilling a burr hole in the skull to relieve the pressure is one of the primary treatments of increased intracranial pressure (ICP). But an elevated ICP is not caused by psychiatric conditions — like space fatigue — it is caused by such things as head trauma, bleeding into the brain, and brain tumors.
All images are from Adventure Comics #318, by Edmond Hamilton and John Forte
July 17th, 2008 at 1:37 am
Maybe it’s a space tumor. Can’t get superpowers out of space radiation EVERY time, can you?
July 17th, 2008 at 4:57 am
What’s up with the eyes of the children in the second picture? Does the ship have a leak?
July 17th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Alien children, Pris.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Strange - those are the same stages I pass through while completing a project at work…
July 17th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I clicked on your link and saw this lower down http://www.progressiveruin.com/2008_05_04_archive.html#3667356855543747706
Lana being knocked unconscious, by two small apples. She might have to get that “burr hole” that you mentioned. Hopefully her doctor won’t be a Phrenologist. lol
July 17th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Is the man that Cosmic Boy is talking to in the last panel even a doctor? Maybe Sun Boy is just a jerk, and he’s just been told to give the Legion a line about space-fatigue and scalpel-rays to get rid of them.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Technically, he doesn’t say “space fatigue” is a psychiatric condition. It could just be the colloquial name of a physical condition akin to decompression illness in divers, or high-altitude sickness in mountain-climbers. This might happen for some reason to people who spend a lot of time on space missions and also are very vulnerable to the problem - which would explain why the Legionnaires don’t know about it. That is, it’s a medically known physical reaction, but very rare by the Legionnaire’s time, and Sun Boy happened to be particularly susceptible.
In fact, aren’t his symptoms a pretty good match for some sort of swelling of the brain due to inflammation?
July 18th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Yes, we can all agree that Space Fatigue is incredibly dangerous . . . but what about Space Madness? It’s much worse than Space Craziness, you know.
July 18th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Official Comment
Seth,
You’re right - they don’t come right out an say “psychiatric,” but then this was written in the 1960s, where one did not discuss such things in polite company. You wll notice in the panels above (and other panels I didn’t scan), that the script manages to hit most of the euphemistic terms for psychiatric conditions common back then (“stress”, “personality” etc. etc.).
July 18th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Space PMS?
July 18th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I also assumed it was due to inflammation, doubtlessly due to the long exposure to cosmic space-rays out past the Van Allen Space-Belt, and the many sudden space-changes in space-pressure.
Also, trepanation is clearly not trepanation when it’s done using laser scalpels. Jeez. As a doctor, you should know that — lasers change *everything*.
Incidentally, I entirely forget how I came on this blog, but it’s become one of my favorite laughs every couple of days. Good schtuff.
July 21st, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Let´s face it: Sun Boy always had some delusions of grandeur. If we were to make a diagnostic considering the patient’s history…well, you tell us
July 25th, 2008 at 11:48 am
“Scalpel rays”…is that anything like the plasmablade that’s being hyped?
http://gizmodo.com/5029056/peaks-plasmablade-is-sci+fi+like-surgical-tool-of-the-future
August 17th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
[…] Source:io9 Feeling particularly irritable, stressed and likely to lash out at those around you for no good reason? Don’t worry; you’re not having some kind of nervous breakdown… at least, not if you spend a lot of time in orbit. Chances are, you’re just experiencing Space Fatigue - A condition created by SF writers in the 1950s that has become a real problem for NASA and other space agencies around the world. The concept of Space Fatigue first appeared in Adventure Comics #318, and is best summarized by the Polite Dissent blog’s description of the … Rating: (Not Rated) Loading … Share This Article […]
August 19th, 2008 at 12:14 am
biological drug addiction treatment…
I dont know how I really got there as I was searching for some drug rehab facility locations nearby. But I need some help if anyone out there who’s in the field of pyschology or is working in a drug addiction rehab center nearby….
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