History Main / SpaceMadness

* ''VideoGame/CardCityNights2'': Lemonic Diva mentions space driving people to megalomania in one piece of dialogue:
--> '''Lemonic Diva:''' Space tends to turn people into megalomaniacs. How many have you encountered who wanted to rule the universe so far? Three? Maybe four?
* ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans2:'' Touched upon in the final level, when Crypto bodyjacks a cosmonaut to persuade all the other cosmonauts to turn on their alien allies. His succinct summation they are untrustworthy by dint of being "giant freakin' lobsters" is dismissed as a symptom of Long-Term Moon Craziness.

Compare OceanMadness, since SpaceIsAnOcean and all that, and SpaceIsolationHorror. CabinFever is a related trope, due to its similarities to the close confines of a spacecraft.

* The media speculated that the last Skylab crew, having been in space for 80 days, had suffered from "space madness" and [[http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/true-life/on-strike-in-outer-space gone on strike]] -- specifically, they had switched off all communications and taken a day off to not do anything. It turned out to be a misunderstanding; they just ''forgot'' to contact MissionControl because of scheduling confusion. The overactive imaginations on Earth theorized that the crew had gone a bit kooky from their grueling schedule, their isolation, their constant [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou micromanagement and monitoring of their actions]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Skylab's pervasive brown color scheme]]. The media took this and ran with it, even after the misunderstanding had been cleared up.

* ''WebOriginal/CaptainsLog'' chronicles a crew of space explorers descending into madness and depravity as the boredom and isolation get to them.

Compare OceanMadness, since SpaceIsAnOcean and all that and SpaceIsolationHorror. CabinFever is a related trope, due to its similarities to the close confines of a spacecraft.

* ''VideoGame/CardCityNights'': Lemonic Diva mentions space driving people to megalomania in one piece of dialogue:

* This trope likely originated in 1950s experiments designed to test the effects of working in a cramped, low-oxygen environment, which could result in hallucinations and other signs of mental stress. Of course, this had more to do with the [[GoMadFromTheIsolation isolation]] and [[CabinFever sense of claustrophobia]] created by such experiments, but as no-one had actually gone up into space at the time the results were not encouraging. However, the trope does not apply to the relatively short missions that the astronauts and cosmonauts undertook in the 1960s (the longest was about 15 days). The problem begins when longer duration missions start.
* The last Skylab crew, in space for 80 days, [[http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/true-life/on-strike-in-outer-space famously were thought to have went on strike]], switching off all communications and taking a day off after being driven to exasperation by a grueling schedule, [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou their every action being constantly dictated and monitored]] by MissionControl, and the fact that [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking everything in Skylab seemed to be colored brown]].[[note]]What actually happened was far more mundane: they accidentally failed to contact Earth for a brief period because of scheduling confusion, which was interpreted on the ground as a strike and reported that way by the media, an idea that was then perpetuated even when it was realized what had actually happened. Tensions were high and mediation talks had to be held with Mission Control about their anger at the micromanagement, but the crew ended up achieving a huge amount in their time in space.[[/note]]
* The Russians had several psychological issues in their early Salyut and MIR missions.
* The European Space Agency locked 6 people in a house/mock-spaceship for over 500 days, as an experiment to see how people would cope with a trip to UsefulNotes/{{Mars}} and back. Naturally, they still had gravity, but the communications delays and isolation from "Earth" were simulated pretty well. [[AvertedTrope They emerged unscathed]], though they were certainly ''happy'' to be out.
** One of the lessons taken away from this experiment was that the best remedy for this trope is probably the simplest; make sure that all the participants have plenty to ''do''. This is harder than it sounds, because piloting a spacecraft is a task that consists of short bursts of complex mathematical calculations -- which, unless something has gone spectacularly wrong, will be handled by computer -- followed by anything from hours to months of waiting. Lightweight, compact storage media for books, music and other entertainment media might be as crucial to the feasibility of manned spaceflight as any development in the field of rocketry.
* The fears of Space Madness led to the situation where UsefulNotes/YuriGagarin's capsule controls were locked up, with the code to be transmitted to him from the Earth after his mental state was evaluated. Unofficially he had the codes on a slip of paper in his pocket.
** Another version is that he had this code in a sealed envelope inside his capsule and he wasn't supposed to know it beforehand. Two different people told him the code on the launch day. Bonus points for the second one telling him the code just minutes before sealing the ship.
** The whole team was completely convinced (and was later proven right) that the theory was bupkis, as it was proposed by a doctor who never had any experience with spaceflight or even aviation medicine. But he had too much clout to be simply ignored, so they were forced to play along.
* Gemini 7 was an endurance test for Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, spending 14 days in a cramped capsule with almost nothing to do (bar a rendezvous with Gemini [=6A=]). Anticipating the boredom, each man brought a book with him and they were read and traded back and forth until the two got sick of them. The situation eventually devolved to Borman and Lovell singing the same song to each other on a constant loop. Lovell later reported: "For the last few days we just ''existed.''"
** This may have more to do with the fact that the cabin of the Gemini spacecraft was the size of the front seat of most automobiles than the outer space environment, especially given that crews on the International Space Station regularly stay up for six months at a time, and some Russian cosmonauts were on Mir for more than a year on end with only their two crew mates for company.
** That, and a urine collection bag burst early in the mission, causing the capsule to smell like a public latrine.
* Urban legends that keep circulating in the Russian yellow press and equally yellow web claim that Soviet and Russian cosmonauts periodically have episodes of weird hallucinations while in space. Those hallucinations sometime seem to be mystical, sometimes [[HearingVoices the voices]] warn of hardware malfunctions, and one time a cosmonaut allegedly came to believe he was a dinosaur.
* It is often said that the intellectual/academic specialty most likely to kill themselves is that of the astronomer and cosmologist. Perhaps this is what gave Creator/DouglasAdams the idea of the [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Total Perspective Vortex]]: astronomers are contractually bound to stare into it night after night and contemplate infinity in a direct and un-theoretical way, thus getting a very clear picture of how small and insignificant the human race is, in the grand scheme of things.
* [[http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/mars-astronauts-risk-brain-damage-from-cosmic-rays-1.3061577 Experiments suggest]] that astronauts headed to Mars or other interplanetary destinations may experience Alzheimer's-like symptoms, due to brain damage caused by cosmic rays.

* The term for the real life condition is [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism_syndrome Solipsism Syndrome]], in which the person doubts anything exists outside their mind. Extended isolation can cause this and astronauts on deep space missions might not just be prone to this, but also completely unable to rescue or help.

* Hugo Gernsback had one of the earliest examples in the classic sci-fi story ''Ralph 124C 41+''. Without gravity pulling downwards on the brain, it instead expands outwards slightly in all directions, to ill effect.
-->''The effect on the brain results in [[SpaceX space-sickness]], the first symptoms being violent melancholy and depression followed by a terrible and heart-rending longing for Earth. During this stage, at which the patient undergoes great mental suffering, the optical nerves usually become affected and everything appears upside down, as if the sufferer were looking through a lens. It becomes necessary to take large doses of ''Siltagol'', otherwise brain fever may develop.''

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' has a bunch:
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
*** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E4TheNakedTime The Naked Time]]", when discussing what happened to a scientific expedition who killed themselves and each other in bizarre ways, Spock raises the possibility of space madness but points out that [[DownplayedTrope it would still have to be caused by something specific]].
*** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E9TheTholianWeb The Tholian Web]]", [[NegativeSpaceWedgie being in a particular area of space]] causes violent insanity in the ''Enterprise'' crew by distorting the molecular structure of their brain tissues and central nervous systems.
*** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E18TheLightsOfZetar The Lights of Zetar]]", Scotty says that going on your first deep space trip can affect a person's mind.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': The episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E17NightTerrors Night Terrors]]" has the crew become irritable and paranoid after coming across a Federation ship where the crew went insane and killed each other. However, in this case it's because an alien vessel's attempts at communication disrupts the crew's REM sleep patterns rather than [[NegativeSpaceWedgie the usual space anomaly]].
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E18DramatisPersonae Dramatis Personae]]", later revealed to be caused by the crew members become possessed by the minds of a dead alien culture who had turned on themselves before their extinction and were causing the crew to reenact their power struggle.
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has The Void. (Confusingly, it's in the episode titled "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E1Night Night]]", not the episode titled "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E14TheVoid The Void]]".) It's lightyear upon lightyear of nothing. You can't even see the stars; it's so big that hardly any ships cross it, thus nobody from either side knows much about the other. It's so big that the ship has to be on minimum power, and a broom leaning against the Conn panel could fly the ship. Nothing to do, nothing to see, everybody becomes stir-crazy or suicidally depressed... or composes a hauntingly beautiful clarinet piece (of course, Perpetual Ensign Harry Kim always was one of the most stable of the bunch).

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' has references to people going space-crazy. Most notably Holly, the ship's computer, spent 3,000,000 years alone in deep space and has gone a bit peculiar.
* ''Series/ICarly'': Carly manages to suffer from this after a few hours in "[[Recap/ICarlyS03Ep12ISpaceOut iSpaceOut]]" even though she, Sam and Freddie never go to outer space and are just in a simulation room. Later episodes show that Carly is actually {{claustrophobi|a}}c, though it’s possible that the simulation room caused it.
* This is a theorized origin of the Reavers in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' -- that they went to the edge of known space and something they saw, whether it was the vast emptiness or something else, drove them insane. Not everyone believes this -- as Jayne points out in ''Film/{{Serenity}}'': "I went to the edge of space once. Know what I saw? More space." [[spoiler:The truth is simultaneously [[{{Aesoptinum}} much simpler]] and [[GoneHorriblyWrong infinitely worse]].]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In the first episode, "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E1WhereIsEverybody Where Is Everybody?]]", a man finds himself in an empty town. He's revealed to have hallucinated the whole thing during an exercise designed to replicate the feeling of isolation in outer space.
* In ''Series/JohnDoe'', a metal dome in the forest turns out to be a simulated space vessel, in which astronauts have been confined for months to test the mechanisms and psychological hazards of a manned trip to Mars. Initial investigation suggests the crew have killed each other due to Space Madness from prolonged isolation, [[spoiler:but it turns out that their air-circulation system was sabotaged, causing a gas imbalance that impaired their reason]].
* In ''Series/{{Community}}'', Pierce succumbs to this after a few minutes of being locked inside a space simulator.

* In one episode of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' during the arc where Howard is aboard the International Space Station, he starts breaking down, getting paranoid about the thin walls between him and vacuum and missing gravity to the point where he asks Bernadette to drop something so he can watch it fall in one of their video chats. Eventually, the other astronauts strap him down and pump him full of tranquilizers.
* A major part of the back-story of ''Series/{{Extant}}'' is that one of the astronauts went insane after prolonged exposure and isolation in space (13 months) and quickly killed himself upon his return to Earth. This raises a question about Molly, the protagonist: did her experiences in space really happen, or is she suffering from the same problem?
* Space fatigue is mentioned in ''Series/BlakesSeven'', but given Creator/TerryNation's liking for the SpaceX trope that's hardly surprising.
* In ''Series/TheExpanse'', the unnamed XO of the ''Canturbury'' is suffering from a bad case of this, shuffling around his dirt-covered cabin and waving a revolver, hence why Holden has to assume many of his duties.
-->''"You know what I just can't figure out? We made it all this way, so far out into the darkness... ''[deranged chuckle]'' Why couldn't we have brought more light?"''

* Music/{{Muse}}'s song "Space Dementia".

* The Music/VanDerGraafGenerator song "Pioneers Over C" is about an astronaut who, very similarly to Major Tom from ''Space Oddity'', loses contact with ground control. The song goes on as an InnerMonologue of his insanity.

* The Music/BlueOysterCult song "Monsters" deals with this trope. A woman and two men escape a dying Earth in a spacecraft; there is a mad fight over her between the two men; she is inadvertently killed....
** The song "Sole Survivor" may also invoke this trope.

* The Fury from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', a Russian cosmonaut that went AxCrazy from something he witnessed while outside the earth's atmosphere. [[spoiler:His suit was on fire, and he saw the Earth through the flames... making the Earth appear to be on fire.]]
* In ''VisualNovel/{{Policenauts}}'', this leads to a higher rate of drug abuse amongst astronauts, who developed the [[FantasticDrug designer drug Narc]] as a way to relieve the pressure of living in space. Narc is a psychedelic hallucinogen that also gives the same narcotic effect as heroin, so users are incredibly resistant to pain. It's also outrageously addictive.
* Captain Vladamir from ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle''. Possibly as a ShoutOut to [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater the Fury]], he was a cosmonaut who went insane from isolation and didn't realize he was back on earth until he dies at the end of the fight when his helmet is shattered.
* Flavor text for the Oort Cloud in ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Terran Conflict]]'' mentions that those who work there sometimes fall victim to "Oort's Curse", a madness with no known cause or cure.
* This is stated as the cause of the Demon Pirates' bizarre, disjointed speech patterns and homicidal aggressiveness in ''VideoGame/TachyonTheFringe''. An unspecified 'something' in the pirates' nebula seriously scrambles their neural pathways over an extended period of exposure, and not even the hermetic sealing of a spaceship is proof against it. There are cases where individuals removed from the nebula slowly recover some shaky semblance of sanity, indicating that it might well be the nebula itself that is responsible for the degeneration. It's also implied that the Fog was created, or at least modified, by [[MadScientist Dr. Randall Cassitor]]. Luckily, one of the missions involves you getting a group of the Demon Pirates to attack Cassitor's base.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In an early episode of ''Anime/CaptainHarlock'', Tadashi Daiba comes down with a case of space madness on his first trip in space. He has some strange hallucinations before collapsing.

* An early ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' story has Sun Boy snapping from too many consecutive deep space missions, after which the Legion Constitution was amended to require mandatory downtime every so often.

* [[Characters/MarvelComicsStorm Storm]] of the ComicBook/XMen suffers a milder version of this due to the fact that she was away from the Earth and feels a disconnect returning. After spending some time on the streets of Tokyo with ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s friend Yukio (who considers herself a bit mad), she decides to get a new look involving leather and a Mohawk. She eventually gets better.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'' features several cases of space madness of varying severity, from the mild (becoming addicted to close-range suntanning) to the severe: [[spoiler:"Mankind was not meant to tamper in the domain of God! Die!"]]
* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Film/{{Outland}}''. Federal Marshal O'Niel is trying to find out why miners on Io are going insane and killing themselves. At first, it seems like they're cracking up under the pressure of living in grimy, crowded, dangerous conditions far from Earth -- 28 have died in the last six months, with 24 in the six months prior. However, when O'Niel is told that only ''two'' died in the six months before ''that'', he realizes that something's fishy.

* In ''Film/ConquestOfSpace'', the doctor on [[SpaceStation the Wheel]] diagnoses one man who cracks up as having "somatic dysphasia", described in LaymansTerms as "space fatigue". Apparently, everyone working in outer space suffers from it, but the symptoms are usually minor, and easily cured by returning the patient to Earth. For those selected for the first Mars expedition, already under stress through the competitive selection process, the issue is more serious. The general in charge of the mission begins to crack, and in a religious fervor tries to sabotage the spacecraft [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow in the belief that Man is not meant to leave planet Earth]].

* In ''Film/MutinyInOuterSpace'', the commander of the SpaceStation is suffering from 'space raptures', which cause hallucinations and affect judgment. This is bad news when the station has become contaminated by an alien fungus, thus leading to the eponymous 'mutiny' as the crew attempt to remove him from command.
* ''Film/AdAstra'': Astronaut Roy [=McBride=] believes his astronaut father (who has been sent on a deep space mission) suffers from space madness, and goes out to save/stop him, while fearing that he may succumb to space madness himself.
* {{Downplayed|Trope}} in the 1960 Italian sci-fi movie ''Space-Men'' (a.k.a. ''Assignment: Outer Space''). When the TagalongReporter is placed into a spacesuit and ThrownOutTheAirlock so he can cross to the SpaceStation, he starts to FreakOut over the endless void, but pulls himself together just before reaching the other airlock. No one bothers easing him through it, and his reaction is regarded as entirely normal, the equivalent of getting your space legs.
* ''Film/LucyInTheSky'' implies that it's not outer space, but the return to the mundanity of life on Earth that drives people over the edge. Even though the movie was VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, this premise was [[https://time.com/4716473/hollywood-misconceptions-about-female-astronauts-space/ criticized by real-life astronaut Marsha Ivins]].

* ''Literature/TheStarsMyDestination'' features the character of Gully Foyle, who becomes stranded in space after his ship is attacked and starts to go mad slowly. However, it doesn't really kick in until a ship capable of rescuing him casually flies past, which leaves Foyle with a hateful vengeance that drives him for the rest of the novel.
-->'''Gully Foyle:''' I kill you, Vorga. ''I kill you filthy!''

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein:
** In ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'', Secretary General Douglas asks if Dr. Mahmoud is "space happy" from his trip back from Mars.
** The main character of ''Literature/OrdealInSpace'' develops severe acrophobia after an EVA accident sends him [[DramaticSpaceDrifting adrift in space]] until rescue arrives, forcing him to give up space flight. [[spoiler:He snaps out of it when he nerves himself up to rescue a kitten stuck on a ledge.]]
* ''Literature/KnownSpace'':
** In one short story, [[AsteroidMiners Belters]] are said to temporarily lose their minds while staring at space, similar to "highway hypnosis". They continue to function somewhat, much like sleepwalkers.
** Human (and probably Kzin, kdatlyno, [[NeglectfulPrecursors Pak]], etc.) brains have a defense mechanism against a certain form of this: you'd go mad looking at [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace hyperspace]], since your brain isn't evolved for that kind of geometry, and so your brain simply ''edits out'' windows, viewscreens, etc.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov:
** In ''Literature/TheMartianWay'', it is a widely known "fact" that nobody can remain in space for more than six months without going crazy, and it is hard to even remain that long, which is why ships are built as big as possible and are filled with libraries and movie theaters to keep their passengers occupied. However, the hero points out that many humans who have colonized Mars have stayed out in space for longer, and on much more cramped and un-amusing ships, too, as they have adapted to the experience. They also think that floating in the void in a spacesuit is great fun and spend much of their off-duty hours while travelling between planets doing so.
** "Literature/ImInMarsportWithoutHilda" is based around the fact that most people cannot travel in space without a dose of special medication... and it is very difficult to conceal the fact said medication can be cooked into a [[FantasticDrug super-drug]] in anyone's kitchen.
** Played with in ''Literature/TheNakedSun''. Elijah Baley can barely keep it together the first time he travels into outer space, but that's because everyone raised in the domed cities of Earth suffers from agoraphobia, and so he can't cope with knowing that he's surrounded by all that 'space'. People taking a plane between two cities don't tend to fare much better.

* Creator/MichaelMoorcock:
** In ''The Shores of Death'', no one can leave the Earth for as much as a month without their spirit driving them mad with the pain of separation from mother Gaia. One man manages to spend years away by reforming himself into a mutant monstrosity, but his acolytes die horribly. Then again, Orlando Sharvis may in fact be another incarnation of Arioch, or perhaps Satan.
** In ''The Black Corridor'', a handful of people leave a doomed insane Earth in a colony ship. The central character is on his lonely vigil tending the life-support systems keeping the rest in suspended animation. but deep space threatens to overwhelm him... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jzk_sQetI8 set to music]] by space-rockers Music/{{Hawkwind}}.
* In the short story "Competition" by James Causey, just looking into a viewport is enough to send a female biochemist into temporary insanity -- it's mentioned that only experienced space travelers can do so.
* In the 1960 short story "Egocentric Orbit" by John Cory, the first men launched into space withdraw into themselves and refuse to talk to anyone, such is the ego-boosting effect of seeing the entire world revolve around them.
* In the Creator/WilliamGibson short story "Hinterlands", those who travel the interstellar "Highway" invariably return catatonic, insane or dead by their own hand. In rare cases a returnee can be temporarily grounded in reality by taking some really good drugs with someone they can totally relate to.
* In "Literature/TheNothingEquation", an astronaut is assigned to a one-man astronomy station at the edge of the galaxy. He knows that his predecessor went insane, and the one before killed himself, but is confident ''he'' won't crack up. Slowly, though, he becomes obsessed with the idea of just how vulnerable he is out here, with a hull one sixteenth of an inch thick holding 2 million pounds of pressure. He starts charting every possible vulnerable point and ends up, months later, cowering under a makeshift tent, convinced the "nothingness" outside is just waiting for a chance to come rushing in. [[HereWeGoAgain The story ends with a fourth astronaut taking over the post also confident that he won't crack up; after all there's 'nothing' out there to be afraid of...]]
* In the short story "Scrimshaw", by Creator/MurrayLeinster, a group of millionaires on the first tourist trip to the Moon go into catatonia or kill themselves as Earth retreats behind them and they realize their sheer insignificance. (As practice showed later, Leinster's ideas of human humility were greatly exaggerated.)
* In ''Literature/MissionToHoratius'', the possibility of "space cafard" became a concern. Spock describes it as:
-->''"Compounded of claustrophobia, ennui -- boredom, if you will -- and the instinctive dread of a species, born on a planet surface, of living outside its native environment... A mania that evidently is highly contagious. It is said that in the early days of space travel, cafard could sweep through a ship in a matter of hours, until all on board were raging maniacs, and--"''
* In ''Tomorrow War'', by Alexander Zorich, all ships have at least some bays equipped with real windows (not video screens). If this feature is omitted, the crew will grow less stable until someone starts to drool or breaks the screen and then walks out of an airlock. One of the reasons may be [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace sensory deprivation during jumps]] -- crews obviously are used to FasterThanLightTravel and aren't jarred too much, but it seems to make the long-term problem worse.
* Creator/StanislawLem:
** This is why patrol ships have a mirror installed in them in ''Literature/TalesOfPirxThePilot''. Pirx ends up kicking himself in the face repeatedly before returning to his senses. In fact, one of the tests one must endure during the piloting academy is sensory deprivation by the means of a special salt-water pool.
** In ''Literature/TheStarDiaries'', one of the short stories calls into question whether Tichy's far-fetched adventures really happened (or are [[TheMunchausen tall tales and exaggerations]] related by an UnreliableNarrator), or are actually delusions resulting from isolation-induced space madness.
* Creator/AndreyLivadny's novel ''Ganymede Rising'' has the crew of the USS ''Harry S. Truman'', an American space cruiser, who are sent on a top-secret mission to the titular moon of Jupiter to retrieve a recently discovered alien artifact. When someone brings up the fact that the ''Truman'' is not designed for interplanetary travel (it lacks [[HumanPopsicle cryogenic pods]], for one), and there's a strong risk of this trope. The others wave the concern off, claiming that the crewmembers are [[{{Eagleland}} American soldiers]] and their resolve and faith in their nation will sustain them. They're wrong, of course. After long months of travel, the crew of the ''Truman'' does indeed start losing their minds. So, when strange creatures start coming out of the artifact, TheCaptain orders an attack on it and also sends troops to the Ganymede colony (which is not under American jurisdiction). When the attack fails ([[spoiler:the insane soldiers end up accidentally shooting one another, as the aliens are holograms]]), he gets ready to push the button and NukeEm all.

* In the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' universe, it's mentioned that the realization of just how dangerous being in space is can cause people to crack every now and then, requiring the person in question to be sedated and transferred to a groundside post for therapy. A normal naval vessel has something like this happen once or twice a T-year (Terran year).
** In ''Honor Among Enemies'', a member of Honor's crew goes for a "Dutchman"[[note]]derived from the legend of the ''FlyingDutchman''[[/note]]: her spacesuit malfunctions [[spoiler:except it wasn't a malfunction]] and she gets shot away from the ship, maneuvering randomly at maximum thrust, for as long as her suit's fuel lasts. She's rescued -- but only just barely. The narrative mentions that crewfolk who go for a Dutchman are never the same afterward. Spacers fear that death, alone and drifting in deep space while your air slowly runs out, above all others, and the psychological trauma of coming so close to actually dying that way almost always brings on a severe case of PTSD.
** In the Creator/JohnRingo short story "A Ship Named Francis", between the decidedly substandard crew and the highly disturbing sermons of the ship's chaplain (in which he implores God to not let any of the various things that can destroy a ship happen in excruciating detail for fifteen minutes over the public address system every morning), the ''Francis S. Mueller'' has to trank at least one person every week.
* The short story "[[http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/steele_12_14_reprint/ The Emperor of Mars]]" covers going nuts in space in some detail, although usually the causes are being cooped up in a confined space for too long, lack of sunlight, poor diet, stress and getting bad news from home that you can't do anything about rather than space itself.
* ''Literature/AgentOfVega'': This trope is weaponized in "The Illusionists". A planetary tyrant who suffers from extreme space-fear is tricked into fleeing his planet with the help of antipsychotic drugs that keep the fear under control... until the dosage expires.

* The term for the real life condition is Solipsism Syndrome, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism_syndrome, in which the person doubts anything exists outside their mind. Extended isolation can cause this and astronauts on deep space missions might not just be prone to this, but also completely unable to rescue or help.