The Science of Monsters

In The Shining we learn that the previous caretaker of the Overlook Hotel suffered from cabin fever and murdered his family. Does cabin fever actually exist? And if so, can it cause the sufferer to lash out violently? We know that Delbert Grady (Philip Stone), the former caretaker, also had ghosts to contend with, but would cabin fever alone cause a person to murder? Cabin fever is a colloquial term used to describe the feeling associated with claustrophobia and boredom that one feels when confined. When individuals are stuck indoors for an extended period of time they may tend to sleep, to have a distrust of anyone they are with, or to have an urge to go outside even in bad weather. Clinical psychologist Josh Kaplow, PhD, describes cabin fever as “your mind’s way of telling you that the environment you are in is less than optimal for normal functioning. It’s when you’re in a space of restricted freedom for a period of time that you can no longer tolerate.”¹ A similar phenomenon coined “prairie madness” was documented in personal letters, journals, and historical writings throughout the nineteenth century. While not an official diagnosis, prairie madness was wholly real. It afflicted European settlers used to urban environments who moved to the desolate prairies of the United States and Canada. When faced with harsh conditions and inevitable isolation, the afflicted would be struck with mentally destructive symptoms such as depression, changes in character, and even suicide. In women it manifested in crying fits, while in the book Men, Women, and Madness: Pioneer Plains Literature author Barbara Howard Meldrum explains that men were prone to demonstrate their depression through violence. Written long before The Shining, Willa Cather’s novel O Pioneers! (1913) depicts a fictional account of such violence. After moving to the wide-open plains, main character Frank Shabata spirals into a dark depression due to prairie madness that ends in the murder of his wife and her lover.

In 1984, researchers at the University of Minnesota conducted a study on the affliction known as prairie madness, more commonly known as cabin fever. Minnesota is naturally the best place for such research, as cabin fever is not a foreign concept to those who have endured its long winters. In the study, thirty-five Minnesotans from varying communities were interviewed about their definition of cabin fever, as well as its effects on them. None of the respondents linked violent acts with cabin fever, but there are references to tension, as one man admitted; “temper gets short. Very short.” And a woman described her husband in the throes of cabin fever; “He’s just terrible at the end of winter. Just before spring he’s a bear to be around.”² While the character of Jack Torrance becomes more than just “a bear to be around,” by the climax of The Shining we have found no research to suggest that cabin fever has been used as an official defense in a murder trial. Although, in 1984, coincidentally the same year as the U of M study, a base commander set fire to Almirante Brown Research Center in Antarctica at the thought of enduring yet another winter on our most isolated continent. Thankfully, he and his Argentine crew were not harmed as they were saved by an American ship. More recently, a Russian scientist in Antarctica had the dubious honor of becoming the first person to attempt murder on the vast, frozen continent. Enraged at a fellow scientist who continually spoiled the endings of books, Sergey Savitsky “snapped” plunging a knife into the chest of the serial spoiler, Oleg Beloguzov. (Let this be a violent reminder to keep book endings to yourself!) Beloguzov’s heart was nicked by the knife, but after being airlifted to the closest hospital, he mercifully lived. The men had spent the previous four years together working in isolation. According to the New York Post, “officials said that while the reading dispute was the final straw, the close confinement in the camp on remote Antarctica played a role in fueling the attack.”³ It seems that under the right conditions, cabin fever can play a role in violent attacks, particularly in extreme circumstances like Antarctic research stations. Because of these sorts of incidents, astronauts must prepare for the mental strife of isolating themselves from the entire planet. To learn more about space and cabin fever we talked to Olivia Koski, author of Vacation Guide to the Solar System: Science for the Savvy Space Traveler! (2017):

Kelly:“How do astronauts deal with the extreme isolation of space?”