The right and wrong stuff in civil aviation.
Aircrewmembers (ACMs) enter a mortally hostile environment when they take off from Earth in their flying machines. Their physiological adaptation has been augmented and supported through ergonomics, avionics, and engineering, but no such technological aid helps them adapt their minds to that atypical condition. They must rely upon their own psychic resources, i.e. "aeronautical motivation" in the three levels of consciousness, and defense mechanisms to counteract their "aeronautical anxiety." Various relationships of motivation and defense give rise either to the flying adaptation syndrome or the various forms of the secondary flying disadaptation syndrome when ACMs must face the dangers of flight. These alterations of the ACMs' psychic balance may cause temporary or permanent medical disqualification due to the impairment of safety which they provoke. This paper proposes an analysis of the interplay between motivation, psychic defenses, and aviation stress to explain the manifestations of flight adaptation and disadaptation seen in some aircrewmembers.
Leimann Patt
H O
HO
Preventive Medicine Branch, National Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*