◆ SpookStack

Approved For Release 2003/08Fe-FIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6 ST-CS-01-169-72 July 1972 instincts is destroyed - the instinct of self—preservation — and the person contemplates suicide (288). The Soviets contend that serious psychological disorders in subjects as described above are evidently related to the exessive burden of the severe experi- mental conditions on the physiology of the subjects. The Soviets continue by stating that in the above studies it is not only a matter of the action of isolation and SD factors, but also a number of supplementary factors complicating the circumstances of the experiment (restraint with straps, plaster casts, uncom fortable postures, and occasional painful sensations). The Soviets further believe that Western experimental work does not appear to be a true model of human life and work conditions, especially in space flight simulation SD studies. 7. () According to Kosmolinskiy, experiments on the limitation of stimuli and conditions of isolation carried out by Soviet scientists showed that a healthy person with greater will power can remain in a soundproof chamber for an extended period of time without any psychic changes threatening the condition of his health. The various specific sensory illusions which appear are not of a morbid nature. This form of sensory illusion pertains to illusions associated with incorrect perception of stimuli, the information characteristic of which is insufficient (289). The illusions themselves do not appear to be a sign of psychic disease and often are encountered in healthy persons, especially | in those instances when something interferes with the distinct perception of visual and auditory images; for example, poor lighting. Baseline psychological status, fatigue, distraction, states of expectation and fear are of great significance. 0O.N. Kuznetsov and V.I. Lebedev (289) in describing the presence of illusions involving recognition errors in subjects under investi- gation in the soundproof chamber as a consequence of insufficient information, of a feeling of the extraneous presence of eidetic images, ideas of relationship and over evaluations, do not consider these phenomena to be pathological, and propose calling them pseudopsychopathological. According to the data of F.D. Gorbov (290), psychopathological phenomena were absent in the experiments of Soviet cosmonauts in a soundproof chamber. 8. (U) Soviet scientists assume that the isolation factor must be studied in conformity with conditions which can occur on space flights. In this regard, the most important factor appears to be that a person believe in the necessity of the work which he is to accomplish, and that he have a clear conception of the objects of a given experiment. Each experiment in the soundproof chamber is a moral and volitional examination for future cosmonauts, for example, which prepares them for the performance of complex tasks. 103 CONTROLLED DISSEMINATION NO DISSEMINATION ABROAD (This page is UNCLASSIFIED) Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6