Psychology during the expeditions of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration

The psychology of Antarctic explorers and groups in Antarctic bases has been much studied in recent years, and current knowledge has been summarized in a review by Palinkas and Suedenfeld (2008). There was no formal psychological research during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, but a number...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:History of Psychiatry
Main Author: Guly, HR
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957154x11399203
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0957154X11399203
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0957154X11399203
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Summary:The psychology of Antarctic explorers and groups in Antarctic bases has been much studied in recent years, and current knowledge has been summarized in a review by Palinkas and Suedenfeld (2008). There was no formal psychological research during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, but a number of the doctors and non-medical personnel on the expeditions were keen observers of the psychological aspects of the expeditions and wrote about them. In this paper, I describe their understanding of the psychology of Antarctic exploration. By comparing this with current knowledge, it is clear that most of what has been found by formal study was known to the explorers of the heroic age.