Lecture
The mental states of people in extreme situations are diverse. Sometimes people experience a state of psychogenic anesthesia (absence of pain) in the first five to ten minutes after sustaining injuries or burns, while retaining clear consciousness and the ability to act rationally, which allows some victims to save themselves. In individuals with a heightened sense of responsibility, the duration of psychogenic anesthesia in certain cases reaches fifteen minutes, even with burns covering up to 40% of the body's surface. At the same time, a hypermobilization of psychophysiological reserves and physical strength may be observed. According to medical evidence, some accident victims have managed to climb out of an overturned railway car with a jammed compartment exit, literally tearing apart the roof partitions with their bare hands. Hypermobilization in the initial period of an extreme situation is characteristic of almost all people, but when it is combined with a state of panic, it does not always contribute to their survival.
Extreme situations are characterized by a number of significant psychogenic features that have a destructive, disruptive effect on a person's body and psyche. These include:
Panic — one of the mental states characteristic of a person or group of people in extreme situations. It is characterized by defects in thinking, a loss of conscious control over ongoing events and their adequate comprehension, and a shift to instinctive defensive movements and actions that may partially or completely fail to correspond to the situation. A person rushes about without understanding what they are doing, or else freezes; there is a loss of orientation, a disruption of the balance between primary and secondary actions, a disintegration of the structure of actions and operations, an intensification of the defensive reaction, and a refusal to act, all of which aggravate the severity of the situation's consequences.
Altered afferentation — a specific response of the organism to sharply altered, unfamiliar conditions of existence. It manifests clearly under the influence of weightlessness, high or low temperatures, and high or low pressure. It may be accompanied (in addition to vegetative reactions) by pronounced disturbances of self-awareness and spatial orientation, by affectation, and by depersonalization and derealization of the personality.
Affectation — a strong and relatively short-lived neuropsychic excitation, characterized by an altered emotional state. It manifests externally in sharply pronounced movements and intense emotions, and is accompanied by changes in the functioning of internal organs and a loss of volitional control. It arises in response to an event that has already occurred. Affectation is based on an experienced state of internal conflict, generated by contradictions between the demands placed on a person and their ability to fulfill them.
Monotony — a functional state that arises during prolonged monotonous work. It is characterized by a decrease in the overall level of activity, a loss of conscious control over the performance of actions, a deterioration of attention and short-term memory, a decrease in sensitivity to external stimuli, a predominance of stereotyped movements and actions, and feelings of boredom, drowsiness, lethargy, apathy, and a loss of interest in one's surroundings and their changes.
Desynchronosis — a disruption of the sleep-wake rhythm that leads to asthenia of the nervous system and the development of neuroses.
Altered perception of spatial structure — this state arises in situations where there are no objects at all within a person's field of vision.
Social isolation — can lead to various psychological changes. One form of solitary social isolation is the "creation of an interlocutor," when a person "communicates" with photographs of loved ones or inanimate objects. Selecting a "partner" for communication under conditions of loneliness is a defensive reaction within the bounds of psychological normality. Under conditions of a prolonged extreme situation, it represents a peculiar model of a split personality. Group social isolation leads to a state of heightened emotional tension, one cause of which may be that people are forced to remain constantly within sight of one another. Women are particularly sensitive to this factor. Under ordinary conditions, a person is accustomed to concealing from others the thoughts and feelings that possess them at any given moment. Under conditions of group isolation, this is either difficult or impossible. The lack of opportunity to be alone with oneself demands increased composure and self-control from a person, and when such control weakens, many people may experience a peculiar sense of physical and psychological exposure and nakedness, which in turn produces emotional tension.
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