My first weeks on the moon were flush with activity, a whirlwind that only quietly and subtly tapered into the doldrums of real life on the moon. I don't remember everything -- I didn't get much sleep, and some of it was repetitious. The press conferences. I got a lot of interviews. I came up with a crew of other professionals -- some scientists on board with NASA, Bret and Gina Trine, who were the other psychology representatives, and Kirsten Dorazio from the Yale school of medicine. The Trines and I must have held about ten conferences together, and I did the interviews on my own. Most of them were the same. A couple took a charming twist. Here's the gist of my teleview with Neve Bolton:
"Would you tell us what you're going to be doing on this mission?"
"It's not really a mission, more of an ongoing experiment. The colony was built to be permanent. Whether all the occupants become permanent too is what we're going to find out, but consider that some of us could spend the rest of our lives here. The first generation to truly live on the moon."
"You're one of three psychiatrists chosen for the project, right?"
"That's correct. The others are Bret and Gina Trine from the University of Texas."
"And you're here to do research, or to fulfill the psychiatric needs of the colony?"
"Both, actually. We'll be engaged in monitoring the colony from a mental health perspective, and of course we'll also be available for counseling should anyone need it. That's an important service for any community."
"Anything you're hoping to discover?"
"The main things we're concerned about -- that researchers have always been concerned about since the dawn of exploration, whether it involved sailing ships or arctic shelters or space stations -- are the effects of isolation and lack of stimulation. We already have two hundred years of good research on these in all kinds of environments. The studies done on Deep Immersion One were especially helpful, and had a strong influence in the design of this project; but remember, the ocean floor is a lot closer to 'civilization' than the moon is. We don't know yet what kind of effect the internal concept of that incredible distance is going to have on participants, especially when a person's under stress. We also have an interest in what kind of culture will develop here. Whether people will stick closely to the routines and conventions they were used to on Earth, perhaps for security, or whether they go the opposite way, into something individualized or unregimented. We belong to the U.S. and the E.U. and India but we're also a long way from our respective governments."
"There's been a lot of talk about Deep Home lately and how the lunar colony project chose participants in basically the same way. Are you worried about a repeat of Deep Home?"
"Deep Home was a fundamentally flawed project. They did use basically the same selection standards as the lunar project has. Remember, this colony is for posterity, not for astronauts with nerves of steel and decades of training. If Joe Normal can hope to live in space someday we'd better start finding out what the average citizen can tolerate. It wasn't Deep Home's selection standards that were the issue. It was their inability to address deteriorating mental health issues before they became a problem."
"But you've also screened for serious psychiatric problems."
"Not me myself, but yes, the committee conducted thorough evaluations on each participant. It's not one of the aims of science to knowingly station someone somewhere we know they may suffer, or have to be removed prematurely. The committee chose as close as they could to average people while keeping those aims in mind."
"Now, it's been well-publicized that this is a joint venture between the nations of UNEX and the commercial conglomerate Century Quest. The colony members are not just participants in a scientific project but consumers of a product. The price of a ticket to the colony is stated at two million dollars. Does this muddy the waters of research? Are we really studying the average citizen on the moon, or just the well-connected and well-to-do?"
"I can't speak too much about the commercial end of it. I do believe that any sustainable future in exploration is going to involve capitalism. And if you look at some of the people who will be coming up to the colony, they're entrepreneurs -- people who've successfully started up small businesses in the past. The key word is sustainable. The project is part of an economy and it's going to have its own economy. There's already a small privately-run garden in the base."
"Back to psychology. You come from a background of private practice... Bret and Gina Trine are both from an academic background. Are you going to bring different things to the project?"
"I hope so. I have fifteen years of experience with counseling work. They, as you might know, have published a lot more than I have. They're more from a theoretical background. We'll be working together. I also have experience with small business psychology, which is something that's going to be important in terms of developing a sustainable economy here."
"Why did you apply for the project?"
"This is an unprecedented opportunity for research. We're doing something no one's ever done before."
"Do you have an interest in space exploration?"
"Well, yes, I think it's our future."
"This is the second time we've seen you now on Mindwatch. Your star has really risen since your name came up on the committee. Did you ever think you'd one day be going to the moon?"
"I assumed that one day we'd be seeing private citizens living on the moon, but if I saw myself there it wasn't as one of the first people to be involved. I never dreamed that."
"You managed to beat out thousands of other qualified psychologists and psychiatrists for your spot, even operating at a disadvantage -- as you say, you'd published very little, so your name wasn't well known before this."
"Yes. I'd spent all my time counseling or consulting."
"But you're certainly very well-thought-of in California, where you've had the West Coast Psychology Report's top ranking for all private psychiatrists six out of the past ten years."
"Their exit surveys are self-selecting, so I wouldn't put too much stock in that ranking, but I have been fortunate to enjoy a certain amount of success in my practice."
"That might be putting it mildly... I have a quote here from Keith Wright, the former California State Representative, and I'll read that: 'The woman is a genius. Her understanding of human nature makes her an intellectual colleage of Jung and Gupatrayan. She is a model for the profession of psychiatry, in which she operates at the highest level of skill.' That's high praise."
"Keith's very kind. He was also a politician, remember. We worked together briefly at the journal Monsoon."
"Well, it's refreshing to talk to someone so modest. We're almost at the end here. Do you have any advice you'd share with our young psychologists, or with those hoping to go somewhere to study like the moon?"
"Let's see. Advice is a dangerous commodity. How about... don't let anyone else choose your path for you. Be open to what comes along. You never know where you might end up. You might end up on the moon."
"We'll take that to heart. I wish you good luck with the new research, and I hope we'll have you back in a few months to share what you're learning!"
"Thank you."
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