Hello! Here's Aber's entry. An entire day before we're due to go to CHECC because we're always so well prepared
Claustrophilia amongst troglodytes
an overview of the emotional and physical wellbeing of subterranean explorers.
By Deri Williams & Adam Cowdrey
Over the years several people have conducted research and proposed theories on this bizarre psychological condition known as Speleosis. However, due to its obscurity and relative rarity, there has not been a continuous effort to study its cause. Therefore, in this paper, the author attempts to summarise the research done so far so that there is a consolidated body of research for the continued study.
INTRODUCTION
One of the factors that has hindered research is that sufferers of speleosis disguise their crippling disorder as an innocent sporting hobby. Key symptoms of speleosis include an affinity for tight spaces and mud, an inhibited danger response, infantilised humour, and a sudden obsession with calcite formations. Some may argue that alcoholic tendencies should be on this list, but whether excessive beer consumption is a symptom of speleosis or a cause is still hotly debated among the handful of people who care. Another contentious topic is the flocking behaviour of sufferers, and their tendency to recruit. It is unknown whether this is simply a human response to seek those that can empathise with their presumed mental anguish, or itself a symptom of the condition.
Post-traumatic speleology and drinking
Early speleosis research was focused around caving as a response to the horrors of war, as many soldiers returning from the front lines of the great war turned to cave exploration. These soldiers founded many of the existing caving clubs. One of the first papers on the matter describes how caving was a form of self-harm that manifested due to the inability to reintegrate into society (Swildon et al, 1956). This paper argues that the gruelling physical punishment in a muddy environment mimics the Somme and allows the afflicted person to re-live their trauma in a controlled environment, thus allowing them to come to terms with it. Others adopted this theory, proposing that alcohol over-consumption (Belfred, 1958) and the decrepit, remote caving huts (Pitts et Shepton, 1959) are also part of the sufferers attempt to isolate themselves from society and subconsciously self-harming. However, as the years progressed this theory fell out of favour, as new generations who had never seen war continued to cave, and the fact that these Mendip based researchers had no actual caves to test their theories with. Swildon would lose his psychiatry licence after it was discovered that much of his research had been fabricated, and that data that had apparently been collected at Hunter's hole had in fact been collected at the Hunters Lodge Inn.
Alcohol-induced Troglodytism
Following this, AIT became the dominant theory in the confined world of speleosis. AIT hypothesised that speleosis was a symptom of brain damage caused by a sudden increase in alcohol consumption (Gill et al, 1972). This aligns with the trend of many cavers beginning to show symptoms after joining their respective university clubs. It is thought that this brain damage affects the regions of the brain associated with societal conformity and higher reasoning. As a response to this inhibited function in these areas, it causes the caver to regress to a more primitive state, specifically that of our cave-dwelling ancestors (Gill et Swinstow, 1982). It is proposed that under AIT theory, sufferers of speleosis are unable to cope with the complexity of modern life, thus will resort to their base instincts and seek an environment with less stimulation. Further research has suggested that this is why cavers have such unusual behaviour above ground. The simple games of squeezing and table traverses are means of establishing a social hierarchy based on objective physical attributes, rather than complex meters of success and authority that exists outside of their self-imposed isolation (Rose, 1976).
The main flaws in this theory are that only a small subset of students go on to suffer full-blown speleosis, and no risk factors have been identified. Further still, by the time a caver is showing conclusive symptoms of speleosis, they have suffered a significant number of knocks to the head, thus making it difficult to determine whether the observed brain damage is a cause of the disorder or an effect of it.
Speleosexuality
In recent times, as society has grown more accepting of those who do not conform to conventional gender and sexuality. There have been discussions that speleosis has been miscategorised as a disorder, and is, in fact, a form of sexuality in the vein of masochism (Darren, 2008). Much like pain-based fetishes, many people struggle to explain why they enjoy caving, even though it offers no obvious pleasurable stimulus. Perhaps due to the suppressed nature of their sexuality, cavers seek comfort in a world of shafts, wet holes, and phallic rock formations. This also aligns with the more sordid aspects of caving culture, which is rife with songs laden with sexual tension. Sexuality also explains the random distribution of those affected without any obvious causes. Further supporting this argument is that 97% of those suffering from speleosis chose sexual partners who are also sufferers (Whitewall et al, 2002). It is perhaps then that caving videos should be considered pornographic, as those grunts of effort may be grunts of pleasure, and the expedition a speleological orgy.
Toxoplasmosis Speleonus
Though usually considered a psychological disorder, there is a fringe movement proposing that speleosis is actually the symptom of parasitic infection from a member of the Toxoplasmosis family. These parasites are most well known for their actions on rats, where they reverse their host's natural aversion to cats and cause them to try to play with them. This causes the rat to be eaten, allowing the parasite to complete its life cycle in its secondary host (Bluejohn, 2014). This paper, the only one on the topic, suggests that a novice caver contracts the parasite from cave mud while on their first trip. As cavers frequently eat mud-covered food, the parasite would enter through the digestive system before making itself at home in the bloodstream. From there, the hypothesised parasite would alter the host's danger perception, as with the rat, to cause them to seek out caves in an unnatural way, and to encourage others to do the same.
As mentioned, there has only been one paper on the subject and it has been met with much criticism, most notably that there is no evidence whatsoever for this parasite, and that the author was recently spotted wearing a tinfoil-coated helmet.
CONCLUSIONS
The literature on speleosis remains quite sparse, with little hope of that changing in the future. The stigma against those with speleosis, as well as most psychologists being unwilling to collect data from a live caving expedition, means that the mind of the caver will likely remain as dark and inaccessible as their beloved potholes.