claustrophobia

ニューヨークの地下鉄で停電トラブルがあり、45分間に渡って乗客が閉じ込められました。

停電により空調も止まったため、車内は”蒸し風呂状態”だったそうです。


On Monday evening, passengers were stranded without power between the West 4th Street and Broadway-Lafayette Street stations, a 45-minute ordeal in which the cars became overheated, causing some riders to panic and one woman to strip nearly naked as they waited in the dark to be rescued, passengers said.

“It felt like a greenhouse. It felt like we were going to suffocate,” said Michael Sciaraffo, 36, an analyst for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. He was on his way home to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, when the train slowed to a halt and suddenly went silent and black. “We were trying to keep cool. We were coming close to the point where people were ready to start flipping out,” he said. “We were teetering toward that.”

Adding to the anxiety, passengers said, was a long pause with no announcement from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority about the cause. Mr. Sciaraffo said the first announcement said their train was held up by traffic delays.
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“Then we got word that the train broke down,” he said. “How could you lie to us and keep us like this, uninformed?” he asked, referring to the transportation department. “That’s when it really turned up, people started getting anxiety, claustrophobia.”
(Sarah Maslin Nir. A Hot Mess for F-Train Subway Riders Trapped in Cars. New York Times. June 6, 2017.)


わたしは幸いにも長時間の社内閉じ込めに巻き込まれたことはないのですが、東京近郊の通勤電車は列車遅延や事故による運休ですし詰め状態を経験することはよくあります。

列車の中のような狭い空間に他人と長時間密着せざるを得ない状況というのはかなりストレスのかかるものです。まして、それが空調もきいていない劣悪な環境となればなおさらのことです。

"claustrophobia"とは、「閉所恐怖症」の意味です。

"-phobia"は「恐怖症」を意味する接尾辞ですが、"claustro-"の部分は、門扉を閉じるための閂（かんぬき）を意味するラテン語claustrumから来ています。

対義語は"claustrophilia"で、こちらは閉所嗜好症というらしく、逆に密室を好むタイプの人を言うようです。