On the Fall of Astronauts
EmailA professor of mine once said, "stop doing research when you meet yourself coming in the other direction." I went poking around the blogosphere, looking to see what the world is saying about the Lisa Nowak story, and got the picture in minutes. Lots of jokes about "the Wrong Stuff." Plenty of "Houston, We Have a Problem" headlines (we briefly had one ourselves). Guffaws all over about Capt. Nowak’s use of adult diapers so she wouldn’t have to make pit stops as she drove from Houston to Orlando. Puns: "astro-nut" and the like. Plenty of juxtapositions of her formal NASA portrait with her mug shot (we did that too).
There’s at least one site which lets you vote: "Which is more out in space? Lisa Nowak or the Moon?" Newer posts seem a touch more reflective, expressing sorrow for Nowak, her alleged victim, and the man caught in the middle. And in the midst of it all I find an old contact, Dr. Pat Santy, a psychiatrist who used to work for NASA, and says he’s glad she doesn’t anymore. "In spite of all the cheerful NASA publicity, the astronauts are only human beings after all," she writes. Then she goes on to wonder what it is that pushes an accomplished, presumably-balanced person over the edge: "Why bother to go to the trouble of choosing "the right stuff" in the first place when the superstar culture of the astronauts only encourages the worst sort of narcissism and sociopathy? Even if an astronaut didn’t have an iota of such psychopathology before they their selection as an astronaut, they are at extremely high risk in the toxic NASA culture of developing it." Dr. Santy calls the Nowak affair a B-grade thriller, and has moved on to other things.
Space Station Flies Over Eastern U.S. at Night 
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Dr. Santy raises an intriguing chicken-and-egg question with the behavior of the astronauts and their individual psychologies: does someone become narcissistic and sociopathic because the surroundings at NASA encourage such psychologies, or does someone have narcissistic and sociopathic psychologies which the surroundings merely bring to the forefront? In either case, one can see the terrible toll on Lisa Nowak by comparing her formal NASA portrait with her mug shot–the photos resemble “before” and “after” photos of an addict.
Posted by: chuck | February 7, 2007, 2:02 pm 2:02 pm
Addict indeed.
As both a victim and observer of romantic affairs for many years, Ms. Nowak’s escapades are pretty much par for the course. Ask anybody who’s witnessed romantic affair partners up close. Stories abound about otherwise normal and successful people who become addicted to dopamine – the love drug. The only difference in this story is that the wayward spouse (Nowak)committed felony crimes as well. All the other craziness and bizarre behavior is so, so, so typical. There is nothing new here.
Dave
Posted by: Dave | February 7, 2007, 4:37 pm 4:37 pm
It is so sad to read about this. I have had my own not so proud moments in the arena of romance, but fortunately not to the extreme that is demonstrated here. Isn’t it painful enough for these people to go through this alone without the scrutinizing eyes of the rest of the world.
Posted by: Paul | February 7, 2007, 8:28 pm 8:28 pm
Overnight I decided that not only would it have been more just for Lisa Nowak to remain in jail, it would also have been safer for her – yesterday afternoon’s big story was that she was in the Johnson Space Center undergoing a battery of medical tests, including a psychological screening. NASA was reported to be very concerned that the public is now doubting the mental tests they’ve developed to winnow out the mentally ill and Lisa, no longer a detainee with specific rights and protections as she awaits trial, but a serving Naval officer who, in the traditions of the service, is expendable, will now be paying for this.
The problem is, the fact that she was stalking points to a personality disorder, and those are very hard to detect via testing. If it is Narcissistic Personality Disorder, those types tend to behave like very good children when things are going their way – they exhibit none of their destructive traits until they sense either a threat to their self-created role as center of the universe, or anticipate abandonment. NASA saw a happy and well-adjusted Lisa because she was happy and well adjusted in terms of the agency and its PR requirements. It was her husband who appears to have been silently enduring the infidelity that has now come to light, and suffered the dishes thrown at him. NASA probably didn’t know about the November 2006 episode of domestic abuse since no charges seem to have been filed, but it is still not clear if Captain Shipman took formal steps against Lisa Nowak previous to the attack. If she had, the concept of expendibility must be considered in her case as well — Shipman is only an O3 and not part of NASA, so her concerns would be of no interest to them, especially in light of NASA’s investment in Lisa. They could easily persuade themselves that Shipman is making a big to do about nothing, and would have been happy to do so had Nowak limited herself to stealth and underhanded harrassment and not gone publically ballistic and attacked Shipman.
Since NASA itself is a narcississtic entity, even if they had the tests to detect the all the Lisas who applied, they’d read them not as warning flags, but as further proof they’d made the right choice until it was clear they hadn’t, and the rule of expendibility would again be used.
Posted by: theresa | February 8, 2007, 10:30 am 10:30 am
I think it is dispicable the media treatment of Ms. Nowak. This is a military officer, who risked her life (many have died, including females, in training or flight) for her country when she flew into space. It’s obvious to anybody that this was etreme behaviour from an itherwise good person. Let the justice system decide these matters.
By the way, anyone else curious about our wonderful Homeland Security Dept? Here’s a woman noticibly dressed in a wig and trenchcoat, waiting around in front of the terminal at a major international airport, who follows another on to a shuttle bus and out too her car. No luggage, no tickets, nothing. There’s a big failure in the system there! But I guess it’s easier to go after a woman….better ratings, after all.
Posted by: Peter Koenig | February 8, 2007, 12:40 pm 12:40 pm
Like Dave, I have experienced being in a love triangle and observing others in such unhappy states. Nowak had an Emotional Affair directed at another man, and betrayed her husband and her children by putting all her emotions into the fantasy relationship.
A symptom of her emotional turmoil and insanity is the thorough planning and follow through on an attempted murder of the woman she viewed as her romantic rival.
Imagine the humiliation of Nowak’s poor kids. They walk into the cafeteria and suddenly the buzz of conversation turns to silence. Where a month ago they were the envy of their classmates, now they are part of a lunatic family. They are stigmatized, ostracized, or worse, people who never spoke to them until the scandal broke are now cozying up to them, hoping to get the “inside dope.” The Nowak kids are the ones I feel badly for.
Her poor betrayed husband, of course I understand his hurt. Been there, wanted to hide my face. But the kids …. they are so vulnerable.
Posted by: Bellevue | February 8, 2007, 2:50 pm 2:50 pm
All the psychological tests won’t stop this from happening again. Like a wild virus, this hits at all walks of life. What can work environments do? They can monitor the working conditions more efficiently, educate their staff on how to identify and expose this kind of conduct before it compromises the integrity of the business.
Now look at her eyes. The tell tale signs were there long before this event. How could her real family and friends NOT have known? Her extreme behavior didn’t just happen. The wayward attitude had been in the making for a long time. The fact that she felt confident enough to pull this stunt goes to show how dangerous a person in an affair can be.
There was no logic to her actions. Yet to her, it appeared she felt the decision to carry out this plan was acceptable. Isn’t that scary?
Take a good look around each of your living environments. You may have neighbors, co-workers, relatives, friends in similar predicaments. What if your doctor, dentist or others who you entrusted your care and that of your family was having an affair? Would you trust their judgment by putting your life in their hands? Now don’t get paranoid but learn how to identify and avoid these situations.
Is this incident just the tip of the iceberg of what is really going on all around us? You bet.
The real question should be what can each of us do when we observe these things in the making? What are the signs? How can we help the innocent victims (i.e. children, the betrayed spouse, relatives, friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc.)?
Many are affected by this ‘affair virus’. What is this ‘affair virus’ really based on and more importantly is there a cure? Yes, there is. It starts with each of us taking ownership and NOT ignoring the signs. Learn the difference between helping and enabling. Know how to detect babble from the truth. That’s a start.
My heart goes out to the families affected in this situation. Unfortunately there are many who can relate to these events to various degrees. How sad. Still there are ways in which family and friends can cope.
I hope Ms Nowak is able to recover. It will not be easy or quick. This illness is deeply entrenched. It will require great effort on her part to recover. Accepting her responsibility for her actions is a start. Still it is possible.
Her life will never be the same again. This is one of the sad consequences when having an affair. Instead of wallowing in grief, she best get help and move forward.
JMHO,
L.
Posted by: Lea | February 9, 2007, 6:07 am 6:07 am
I feel sorry for the children. They are probably being made fun of in school. To go from being envied to dislike from others must be hard. Maybe
she has borderline personality disorder. She must be mentally ill to go this far. It is too bbad that her husband did not make sure she had help when they were having domestic problems.
Shelley
Posted by: Shelley Hooton | February 9, 2007, 9:11 am 9:11 am
Well, now it seems the charges are “just” kidnapping, not murder.
Posted by: Bellevue | March 4, 2007, 6:16 pm 6:16 pm