660 lines
36 KiB
Plaintext
660 lines
36 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: PATIENTS REPORTING UFO ABDUCTIONS FILE: UFO2682
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
|
|
RIMA E. LAIBOW, M.D.
|
|
Child and Adult Psychiatry
|
|
Cerridwen
|
|
13 Summit Terrace
|
|
Dobbs' Ferry, NY 10522
|
|
(914)693-3081
|
|
|
|
CLINICAL DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN EXPECTED AND OBSERVED DATA IN PATIENTS
|
|
REPORTING UFO ABDUCTIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR TREATMENT
|
|
|
|
ABSTRACT: IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THIS PAPER MAKES NO ATTEMPT TO
|
|
ASSIGN OR WITHHOLD EXTERNAL VALIDITY RELATIVE TO UFO ABDUCTION
|
|
SCENARIOS.
|
|
|
|
Patients who believe themselves to be UFO abductees are a
|
|
heterogeneous group widely dispersed along demographic and cultural
|
|
lines. Careful examination of these patients and their abduction
|
|
reports presents four areas of significant discrepancy between
|
|
expected and observed data.
|
|
|
|
Implications for the treatment of patients presenting UFO abduction
|
|
scenarios are discussed.
|
|
|
|
INTRODUCTION
|
|
|
|
If a patient were to confide to a therapist that he had been abducted
|
|
by aliens who took him aboard a UFO and performed a series of medical
|
|
procedures and examinations on him it is not likely that the patient
|
|
would find either a receptive ear or a respectful and non-judgemental
|
|
response from the therapist. The material presented would lie so far
|
|
outside the confines of our personal and cultural belief system that
|
|
it would seem intolerably anomalous to most of us. We would probably
|
|
dismiss or repudiate it using a few comfortable and familiar
|
|
assumptions which hold so much obvious wisdom that they do not require
|
|
specific examination.
|
|
|
|
When events which are too anomalous to allow their incorporation into
|
|
our world schema are presented to us, we are likely to dismiss them by
|
|
using assumptions based in out currently operative world view. This
|
|
effectively precludes the open evaluation of the anomaly. Hence, the
|
|
"expressible" response of most clinical and lay individuals upon
|
|
hearing a UFO abduction account would be an immediate dismissal of
|
|
even the possibility that such an episode might occur. Close upon the
|
|
heels of that determination the rapid and complete pathologization of
|
|
the person offering such an account would follow. Dream states,
|
|
suggestibility, poor reality testing, outright dissembling or frank
|
|
psychosis are customarily offered and accepted as evident and
|
|
reasonable organizing models by which the production of this material
|
|
may be understood. These are typical maneuvers by which the
|
|
presentation of information which challenges schematic assumptions is
|
|
dismissed or screened out before the assumptions can be adequately
|
|
tested for predictive reliability and accuracy. Such testing is highly
|
|
desirable, however, because it offers us the opportunity to apply the
|
|
scientific method to our current level of theorital sophistication and
|
|
thereby refine our understanding of reality further still. Of course,
|
|
this process is severely impeded when the new data is excluded from
|
|
consideration strictly because it is too anomalous for assessment.
|
|
|
|
Westrum has offered a model by which events become "hidden" and
|
|
therefore remain anomalous to the perception of society in a circular
|
|
process: the hidden event is disbelieved and its disbelief helps to
|
|
keep it hidden. Citing the lengthy period during which battered
|
|
children and their battering parents remained hidden, Westrum states:
|
|
|
|
"An event is hidden if its occurrence is so implausible that those
|
|
who observe it hesitate to report it because they do not expect to be
|
|
believed. The implausibility may cause the observer to doubt his own
|
|
perceptions, leading to the event's denial or mis identification.
|
|
Should the observer nonetheless make a report, he/she can expect to
|
|
be treated with incredulity or even ridicule. Since the existence of
|
|
a hidden event is contrary to what science, society, and perhaps even
|
|
the observer believes, the event remains hidden because of strong
|
|
social forces which interfere with reporting. The actual degree of
|
|
underreporting is sometimes difficult to believe, a skepticism which
|
|
itself acts as a deterrent to taking seriously those reports which do
|
|
surface." (1)
|
|
|
|
But for the clinician who spends a moment before reaching these
|
|
"obvious" and "intuitive" conclusions, several fascinating and
|
|
potentially productive questions present themselves. If we refrain for
|
|
a short period from dismissing this material out-of-hand, we find that
|
|
there are at least four areas of puzzling and important discrepancy
|
|
between our intuitive sense of order and the data presented by the
|
|
patient. These discrepancies force us to re-examine our assumptions in
|
|
|
|
light of a demonstrated failure of the theory to account for the
|
|
observed phenomena. This process, while taxing and challenging, is
|
|
nonetheless, the way we systemize our understanding of human health
|
|
and pathology. Noting the previously un-noted and using it to refine
|
|
our conceptual framework leads to better prediction and therefore to
|
|
better treatment.
|
|
|
|
It is not the purpose of this paper to ascribe relative reality to the
|
|
experience of abduction reported by some patients. Rather, precisely
|
|
because it lies outside the realm of clinical expertise to assess with
|
|
certainty whether these events actually occurred or if they are mere
|
|
fantasy, it is mandatory for the clinician to examine the impact of
|
|
these experiences, whatever their source, upon the patient. This must
|
|
be done in a clear sighted and open-minded fashion so that the impact
|
|
of the experiences may be dealt with rather than made into hidden
|
|
events.
|
|
|
|
AREAS OF DISCREPANCY
|
|
|
|
1. ABSENCE OF MAJOR PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: It is intuitively seductive (and
|
|
perhaps comfortable) for us to assume that psychotic-level functioning
|
|
will necessarily be present in a person claiming to be a UFO abductee.
|
|
If this level of distortion and delusion is present, a patient would
|
|
be expected to demonstrate some other evidence of reality distortion.
|
|
Pathology of this magnitude would not be predicted to be present in a
|
|
well integrated, mature and non-psychotic individual. Instead, we
|
|
would expect clinical and psychometric tools to reveal serious
|
|
problems in numerous areas both inter- and interpersonally. It would
|
|
be highly surprising if otherwise well-functioning persons were to
|
|
demonstrate a single area of floridly psychotic distortion. Further,
|
|
if this single idea fix were totally circumscribed, non-invasive and
|
|
discrete, that in itself would be highly anomalous. Well-developed,
|
|
fixed delusional states with numerous elaborated and sequential
|
|
components are not seen in otherwise healthy individuals. Prominent
|
|
evidence of deep dysfunction would be expected to pervade many areas
|
|
of the patient's life. One would predict that if the abduction
|
|
experience were the product of delusional or other psychotic states,
|
|
it would be possible to detect such evidence through the clinical and
|
|
psychometric tools available to us.
|
|
|
|
This points to the first important discrepancy: individuals claiming
|
|
alien abduction frequently show no evidence of past or present
|
|
psychosis, delusional thinking, reality-testing deficits,
|
|
hallucinations or other significant psychopathology despite extensive
|
|
clinical evaluation. Instead, there is a conspicuous absence of
|
|
psychopathology of the magnitude necessary to account for the
|
|
production of floridly delusional and presumably psychotic
|
|
material.(2)
|
|
|
|
In order to test this startling and anomalous information, a group of
|
|
subjects who believe they have been abducted by aliens (9, 5 male, 4
|
|
female) were asked to participate in a psychometric evaluation. An
|
|
experienced clinical psychologist carried out an investigation using
|
|
projection tests (Rorschach, TAT, Draw a Person and the MMPI) and the
|
|
Wechler Adult Intelligence Scale. The examining clinician was told
|
|
"the subjects were being evaluated to determine similarities and
|
|
differences in personality structure, as well as psychological
|
|
strengths and weaknesses". All of the subjects actively refrained from
|
|
sharing UFO-related experiences with the examiner and she was unaware
|
|
of this theme in their lives.
|
|
|
|
The investigator found that commonalties were not strongly present and
|
|
that:
|
|
|
|
"while the subjects are quite heterogeneous in their personality
|
|
styles, there is a modicum of homogeneity in several respects: (1)
|
|
relatively high intelligence with concomitant richness of inner life;
|
|
(2) relative weakness in the sense of identity, especially sexual
|
|
identity; (3) concomitant vulnerability in the inter- personal realm;
|
|
(4) a certain orientation towards alertness which is manifest
|
|
alternately in a certain perceptual sophistication and awareness or
|
|
in inter- personal hyper-vigilance and caution.... Perhaps the most
|
|
obvious and prominent impression left by the nine subjects is the
|
|
range of personality styles the present.... There is little to unite
|
|
them as a group from the standpoint of the overt manifestations of
|
|
their personalities.... They [are] very distinctive unusual and
|
|
interesting subjects. [But] "Along with above average intelligence,
|
|
richness in mental life, and indications of narcissistic identity
|
|
disturbance, the nine subjects also share some degree of impair- ment
|
|
in personal relationships. For [some] subjects, problems in intimacy
|
|
are manifest more in great sensitivity to injury and loss than in
|
|
lack of intimacy and relatedness. [Ad] "...The last salient dimension
|
|
of impairment in the interpersonal realm relates to a certain mildly
|
|
paranoid and disturbing streak in many of the subjects, which renders
|
|
them very wary and cautious about involving themselves with others.
|
|
|
|
It is significant that all but one of the subjects had modest
|
|
elevations on the MMPI paranoia scale relative to their other scores.
|
|
Such modest elevations mean that we are not dealing with blatant
|
|
paranoid symptomology but rather over-sensitivity, defensiveness and
|
|
fear of criticism and susceptibility to feeling pressured. To
|
|
summarize, while this is a heterogeneous group in terms of overt
|
|
personality style, it can be said that most of its members share
|
|
being rather unusual and very interesting. They also share brighter
|
|
than average intelligence and a certain rich- ness of inner life that
|
|
can operate favorably in terms of creativity or disadvantageously to
|
|
the extent that it can be overwhelming. Shared underlying emotional
|
|
factors include a degree of identity disturbance, some deficits in
|
|
the interpersonal sphere, and generally mild paranoia phenomena
|
|
(hypersensitivity, wariness, etc.)" (3)
|
|
|
|
Her findings demonstrate a uniform lack of the significant
|
|
psychopathology which would be necessary to account for these
|
|
experiences if abduction experiences do represent the psychotic or
|
|
delusional states predicted by current theory.
|
|
|
|
When the examiner was informed of the true reason for the selection of
|
|
the subjects for this evaluation (i.e., their shared belief that they
|
|
had been exposed to alien abductions), she wrote an addendum to the
|
|
original report re- examining the findings of the testing in the light
|
|
of the new data. In it she states:
|
|
|
|
"The first and most critical question is whether our subjects'
|
|
reported experiences could be accounted for strictly on the basis of
|
|
psychopathy, i.e., mental disorder. The answer is a firm no. In broad
|
|
terms, if the reported abductions were confabulated fantasy
|
|
productions, based on what we know about psychological disorders,
|
|
they could only have come from pathological liars, paranoid
|
|
schizophrenics, and severely disturbed and extraordinarily rare
|
|
hysteroid characters subject to fugue states and/or multiple
|
|
personality shifts... It is important to note that not one of the
|
|
subjects, based on test data, falls into any of these categories.
|
|
Therefore, while testing can do nothing to prove the veracity of the
|
|
UFO abduction reports, one can conclude that the test findings are
|
|
not inconsistent with the possibility that reported UFO abductions
|
|
have, in fact, occurred. In other words, there is no apparent
|
|
psychological explanation for their reports." (4)
|
|
|
|
2. CONCORDANCE OF REPORTED DATA: The second point of intriguing
|
|
discrepancy follows from this surprising absence of evidence of a
|
|
common thread of severe and reality-distorting psychopathology to
|
|
account for the patient's bizarre assertions. They claim that they
|
|
have been abducted, sometimes repeatedly over nearly the whole course
|
|
of their lives, by aliens who have communicated with them and carried
|
|
out procedures much like medical examinations. Persons reporting these
|
|
experiences are seen to be psycho-dynamically varied. They are also
|
|
demographically varied. Reports of this basic scenario, numbering in
|
|
the hundreds, have now been recorded. Even though the reporters range
|
|
from individuals as diverse as a mestizo Brazilian farmer(5),an
|
|
American corporate lawyer (6), and a Mid- Western minister(7), there
|
|
is a perplexing and intriguing concordance of features in these
|
|
reports. Certain details of the scenarios repeat themselves with
|
|
disturbing regularity no matter what the educational, national,
|
|
social, experiential or other demographic characteristics of the
|
|
reporter. In the production of dreams, reveries, poetry, fantasies and
|
|
psychotic states, while the general themes of concern may be
|
|
identified easily between individuals, the specific symbolization,
|
|
concretion, abstraction and representation of those themes is
|
|
relatively indiosyncratic for each individual. This of course
|
|
necessitates careful empathic and attentive listening on the
|
|
clinician's part to gather both the general flavor and specific
|
|
meaning of the elements of the fantasy state. This careful listening
|
|
often means that a personal symbolic representational system can be
|
|
unraveled and its contents can be rendered less mysterious to the
|
|
patient. In the abduction scenarios however, both specific details and
|
|
themes repeat themselves with surprising regularity: In general, the
|
|
appearance and modus operandi of the aliens, their effect and
|
|
procedures, their tools and interests, their crafts and physical
|
|
features all tally from report to report with a high rate of
|
|
concordance. (8,9,10) This intriguing fact seems impervious to the
|
|
socio-economic, educational, national, or cultural background of the
|
|
abductee. Similarly, whether the individual has had previous contact
|
|
with the literature of abduction seems to make little difference in
|
|
this vein since the reports of individuals who can be shown to have
|
|
had no exposure to abduction literature also contains these common
|
|
features. Skilled practitioners and investigators report in these
|
|
cases that they are convinced that each of these subjects was being
|
|
wholly truthful in his/her report.
|
|
|
|
The concordance of both content and event in these reports makes them
|
|
unlike any other fantasy-generated material with which I am familiar.
|
|
|
|
Indeed, investigators like Hopkins and others claim they have
|
|
intentionally withheld dissemination of certain important, frequently
|
|
reported aspects of the abduction scenarios in order to provide a
|
|
"check" on the material being presented to them by individuals who may
|
|
have had access to this literature since abductees may have been
|
|
influenced at either the conscious or the unconscious level by it. In
|
|
these cases as well, the features which have previously been published
|
|
as well as those withheld are both produced by the abductee (11). In
|
|
instances in which the patient has read some of the abductee
|
|
literature, this previously withheld material may be offered to the
|
|
investigator with a sense of personal invalidation, apology and
|
|
embarrassment. He often expresses concern that this information is
|
|
less likely to be believed than the other material with which he is
|
|
already familiar. (12)
|
|
|
|
Jung and others have written widely about the use of archetypes and
|
|
the collective awareness of themes and images which are asserted to
|
|
present themselves in a world-wide and multi-personal way. The amount
|
|
of individual variation and creative latitude demonstrated within the
|
|
closed system of archetypes and collected creativity is vast. Those
|
|
who pose such universals detect their presence in the complex and
|
|
highly idiosyncratic presentations and guises which they are given by
|
|
the unconscious mind of the patient and the artist. This disguise is
|
|
idiosyncratic, they hold, precisely because a set of available images
|
|
is being used to work and rework the personal realities of the
|
|
individual against the background of the collective. But the abductee
|
|
does not seem to be involved in the reworking of personal mythologies
|
|
against the canvas of the race's mythology. The details and contents
|
|
of the scenarios seem, upon extensive investigation, to bear little
|
|
thematic relevance to the issues inherent in the life of the abductee.
|
|
Intensive follow up investigation frequently yields no thematic,
|
|
archetypical, primary process symbolic meaning to the shape or
|
|
activities of the abductors and the scenario of the abduction itself.
|
|
Instead, therapeutic work in these cases centers around the issues
|
|
inherent in the powerlessness and vulnerability of the individual even
|
|
is this were not a prominent theme in his life before the putative
|
|
abduction. In other words, the customary richness of association and
|
|
creativity found in the examination of dreams and other fantasy
|
|
material is lacking with regard to the scenario and presentation of
|
|
the aliens who abduct and manipulate the patient in the abduction
|
|
story.
|
|
|
|
If the abduction material is indeed archetypal or fantasy generated in
|
|
nature, this is a new class of archetypes. These archetypes demand
|
|
rather exact representation and mythic presentation since the
|
|
activities and behavior of the aliens is rather invariant within a
|
|
narrow latitude regardless of the other dream and fantasy themes of
|
|
the patient.
|
|
|
|
3. ABDUCTION SCENARIOS AND HYPNOSIS. Members of both the lay and
|
|
professional communities frequently assume that material referring to
|
|
UFO abduction scenarios is retrieved under hypnosis. Since it is
|
|
generally believed that people under hypnosis are open to the
|
|
implantation of suggestions through the overt or covert influence of
|
|
the hypnotist it is concluded that this material reproduces the
|
|
hypnotists' expectations or interests. It is further concluded that
|
|
since the hypnotist "put it there" the abduction could not be
|
|
accounted for as material which emerges solely from the patient's end
|
|
of dyad.
|
|
|
|
Thus, the abduction scenarios are commonly dismissed as merely
|
|
representing the production of desired material by compliant subjects.
|
|
The abductees strong sense of personal conviction that this really
|
|
happened to him during the session itself and upon recall of the
|
|
session is similarly dismissed as an artifact of the process by which
|
|
the fantasies were generated.
|
|
|
|
Several compelling factors mitigate against the facile dismissal of
|
|
data in this way. Firstly, about 20% of these highly concordant
|
|
abduction scenarios are available spontaneously at the level of
|
|
conscious awareness prior to hypnosis. (13,14) These accounts may be
|
|
enhanced or subjected to further elaboration through the use of
|
|
hypnosis or other recall enhancement techniques, but in a significant
|
|
number of people producing abduction scenarios the recall is initially
|
|
produced without recourse to such techniques. If their stories were
|
|
substantially different from the concordant abduction scenarios
|
|
produced under regressive hypnosis, a different phenomenon would be
|
|
taking place.
|
|
|
|
However, given the perplexing clinical presentation of similar stories
|
|
from dissimilar people who are uninformed about one another's
|
|
experience, this presents another highly interesting area of
|
|
discrepancy.
|
|
|
|
Hopkins has classified patterns of abduction recall into five categories:
|
|
|
|
Type 1. patients consciously recall parts of the full abduction
|
|
scenario without hypnotic or other techniques designed to aid recall.
|
|
The emergence of this material may be delayed.
|
|
|
|
Type 2. patients recall the UFO sighting, surrounding circumstances
|
|
and/or aliens, but do not recall the abduction itself. Only a
|
|
perceived gap in time indicates any anomalous occurrence.
|
|
|
|
Type 3. patients recall a UFO and/or hominids but nothing else. There
|
|
is no sense of time lapse or dislocation.
|
|
|
|
Type 4. patients recall only a time lapse or dislocation. No UFO
|
|
abduction scenario is recalled without the use of specific retrieval
|
|
techniques.
|
|
|
|
Type 5. patients recall noting relating to UFO or abduction scenarios.
|
|
Instead they experience discrepant emotions ranging from uneasy
|
|
suspicions that "something happened to me" to intense, ego-dystonic
|
|
fears of specific locations, conditions or actions. They may also
|
|
exhibit unexplained physical wounds and/or recurring dreams of
|
|
abduction scenario content which are not fixed in their experience as
|
|
to place and time. (15)
|
|
|
|
Examination of the transcripts of hypnotic sessions which yield
|
|
abduction material reveals that although subjects are sufficiently
|
|
suggestible to enter the trance state as directed by the therapist,
|
|
they resist having material "injected" into their account. They
|
|
customarily refuse to be "lead" or distracted by the therapist's
|
|
attempts to change either the focus or content of their report. The
|
|
subject characteristically insists upon correcting errors or
|
|
distortions suggested or implied by the hypnotist during the session.
|
|
Hence it is difficult to account for the similarities and concordances
|
|
of these scenarios through the mechanism of suggestibility when these
|
|
subjects so steadfastly refuse to be lead by hypnotists.
|
|
|
|
In fact, it is even more striking that while these patients feel the
|
|
material which they are producing both in and out of hypnosis as
|
|
experientially "real", nonetheless they frequently seek to discount or
|
|
explain away this bizarre and frightening material. This remains true
|
|
even though sharing it regularly results in a significant remission of
|
|
anxiety- related symptoms and discomfort. These abduction scenarios
|
|
are so ego-alien that they have frequently not shared the material
|
|
with anyone at all or with only a highly select group of trusted
|
|
intimates. In the vast preponderance of cases patients are reluctant
|
|
to allow themselves to be publicly identified as having had these
|
|
experiences since the perceive that the abduction scenario is so
|
|
highly anomalous that they expect to experience ridicule and
|
|
repudiation if they become associated with it publicly. It therefore
|
|
functions like a guilty secret in the way that rape has (and,
|
|
unfortunately still does in some cases).
|
|
|
|
After the material is produced and explored, these subjects often
|
|
experience a marked degree of relief. This is true with reference both
|
|
to previously identified symptomatic behaviors and other anxiety
|
|
manifestations not noted on initial assessment. These other symptoms
|
|
may remit after enhanced recall of the scenario and its details takes
|
|
place. It is interesting to note that while the scenarios may contain
|
|
a good deal of highly traumatic material specifically related to
|
|
reproductive functioning, these episodes are nearly uniformly free of
|
|
subjective erotic charge when either the manifest or latent contents
|
|
are examined.
|
|
|
|
4. POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD) IN THE ABSENCE OF EXTERNAL
|
|
TRAUMA: PTSD was first described in the content of battle fatigue
|
|
(16). Although it may present in a wide variety of clinical guises
|
|
(17) PTSD is currently understood as a disorder which occurs in the
|
|
context of intolerable externally induced trauma which floods the
|
|
victim with anxiety and/or depression when his overwhelmed and
|
|
paralyzed ego defenses prove inadequate to the task of organizing
|
|
unbearably stressful events. In the service of the patient's urgent
|
|
attempt to still the tides of disorganizing anxiety, fear or guilt<18>
|
|
which accompany the emergence of cognitive, sensory or emotional
|
|
recall of these traumatic events, the trauma itself may be either
|
|
partly or completely unavailable to conscious recall. <19>...Both
|
|
physical and psychological responses to the trauma are profound and
|
|
pervasive. PTSD follows overwhelming real-life trauma and is not known
|
|
to present as a sequel to internally generated fantasy states.<20>
|
|
|
|
This fourth area of discrepancy between predicted and observed data is
|
|
perhaps the most striking and challenging. Patients who produce alien
|
|
abduction material in the absence of psycopathology severe enough to
|
|
account for it often show the clinical picture of PTSD. This is
|
|
remarkable when one considers that it is possible that no traumatic
|
|
|
|
event occured except that rooted only in fantasy. These trauma are, in
|
|
large measure, split off, denied and repressed as they are in other
|
|
occurrences of PTSD.
|
|
|
|
As discussed above, these scenarios frequently appear in individuals
|
|
who are otherwise free of any indication of significant emotional and
|
|
psychological instability or pre-existing severe psycopathology. On
|
|
careful clinical assessment, these memories do not appear to fill the
|
|
intrapsychic niches usually occupied by psychotic or psycho-neurotic
|
|
formulations. The abduction scenarios do not encapsulate or ward off
|
|
unacceptable impulses, they do not define <or defend against> split
|
|
off affects, they are not used either to stabilize or to divert
|
|
current or archaic patterns of behavior nor do they provide secondary
|
|
gain or manipulative control for the individual.
|
|
|
|
Instead, this material, experienced by the patient as unwelcome and
|
|
totally ego-dystonic, seems quite consistently to be woven into the
|
|
fabric of the patient's internal life only in terms of his reactive
|
|
response to the stress inherent in these experiences and the contents
|
|
of the repressed material related to the stressful memories. But the
|
|
extent of this secondary response can be extensive. It should be noted
|
|
that PTSD has not previously been thought to occur following trauma
|
|
which has been generated solely by internally states. If abduction
|
|
scenarios are in fact fantasies, then our understanding of PTSD need
|
|
to be suitably broadened to account for this heretofore unexpected
|
|
correlation.
|
|
|
|
In addition, there are significant clinical implications to the
|
|
finding of abduction scenario material in a patient who shows PTSD but
|
|
is otherwise free of significant psychopathology. Since abduction
|
|
scenario material presents several crucial areas of anomaly and
|
|
discrepancy between what is known and that which is observed. It is
|
|
very important for the therapist to refrain from the comfortable (for
|
|
the therapist, at least) description of psychotic functioning to the
|
|
patient who produces this material until such disturbance is, in fact,
|
|
demonstrated and corroborated by the presence of other signs beside
|
|
the UFO-related material. It is imperative for the therapist to adopt
|
|
a non-judgemental stance. He can attend to the distress of the patient
|
|
without attempting to confirm or deny possibilities which are outside
|
|
the specific area of his expertise. The clinician should adopt as his
|
|
therapeutic priority the alleviation of the PTSD symptomology through
|
|
the use of appropriate and acceptable methods specific to the
|
|
treatment of PTSD. In addition, the therapist must remember that while
|
|
he may have strong convictions pro or con the abduction actually
|
|
having occurred, it is not within either his capability or expertise
|
|
to make such a judgement with total certainty. Furthermore, as the
|
|
clinical psychologist who evaluated the nine abductees pointed out in
|
|
her addendum, the sophistication of the psychotherapies has not
|
|
advanced to the point at which this determination can be made on the
|
|
basis of currently available information (21), although the treatment
|
|
of post traumatic symptomology is currently understood. Hence, it is
|
|
important for the therapist to retain the same non-judgemental and
|
|
helpful stance necessary to the successful treatment of any other
|
|
traumatic insult. When a therapist labels material as either
|
|
unacceptable or insane, the burden of the patient is increased. If the
|
|
therapist is reacting out of prejudices which reflect his own
|
|
closely-held beliefs rather than his complete certainty, he unfairly
|
|
increases the distress of the patient.
|
|
|
|
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS: Although it has long been the "common wisdom"
|
|
of both the professional and lay communities that anyone claiming to
|
|
be the victim of abduction by UFO occupants must be seriously
|
|
disturbed, thoroughly deluded or a liar, careful examination of both
|
|
the reports and their reports calls this assumption into question.
|
|
Clinical and psychometric investigation of abductees reveals four
|
|
areas of discrepancy between the expected data and the observable
|
|
phenomena and suggests further investigation. These discrepant areas
|
|
are:
|
|
|
|
1. ABSENCE OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY - An unexpected absence of severe
|
|
psychopathology coupled with the high level of functioning found in
|
|
many abductees is a perplexing and surprising finding. Psychometric
|
|
evaluation of nine abductees revealed a notable heterogeneity of
|
|
psychological and psychometric characteristics. The major area of
|
|
homogeneity was in the absence of significant psychopathology. Rather
|
|
than consulting a subset of the severely disturbed and psychotic
|
|
population, there is clinical evidence that at least some abductees
|
|
are high functioning, healthy individuals. This interesting
|
|
discrepancy requires further investigation.
|
|
|
|
2. CONCORDANCE OF REPORTS - Highly dissimilar people produce
|
|
strikingly similar accounts of abductions by UFO occupants. The basic
|
|
scenarios are highly concordant in detail and events. This is
|
|
surprising in light of the widely divergent cultural, socio-economic,
|
|
educational, occupational, intellectual and emotional status of
|
|
|
|
abductees. Further, the scenarios themselves do not seem to show the
|
|
same layering of affect and symbolic richness present in other fantasy
|
|
endowed material. Instead, symbolic and conceptual complexity centers
|
|
around the meaning of the experience for the individual, not around
|
|
the shape, form, activity, intent, etc., of the aliens and their
|
|
environment. This is in stark contrast to the expected complexity and
|
|
diversity of thematic and symbolic elaboration found in our fantasy
|
|
material.
|
|
|
|
3. RESISTANCE TO SUGGESTION UNDER HYPNOSIS - Abduction scenario
|
|
concordance is frequently attributed to the introduction of material
|
|
into the suggestible mind of a hypnotized patient. Examination of
|
|
abduction reports indicates that a significant percentage of these
|
|
reports emerge into conscious awareness prior to the use of hypnosis
|
|
or other techniques employed to stimulate recall. Furthermore
|
|
abductees resist being lead or diverted during hypnosis and regularly
|
|
insist on correcting the hypnotist so that their report remains
|
|
accurate according to their own perceptions.
|
|
|
|
4. PTSD IN THE ABSENCE OF TRAUMA - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
|
|
(PTSD) has not been previously reported in patients experiencing
|
|
overwhelming stress predicted only in internally generated states such
|
|
as psychotic delusional systems or phobias. But patients reporting
|
|
abduction frequently show classic signs and symptoms of PTSD. Like
|
|
other kinds of PTSD it is subject to clinical intervention which
|
|
frequently leads to substantial clinical improvement. But in order for
|
|
this improvement to occur, the patient must be treated for the PTSD he
|
|
exhibits rather than the psychotic state he is presumed to display by
|
|
virtue of his abduction report. If the abduction scenarios represent
|
|
only a fantasy state, then it is worth investigating why (and how)
|
|
this particular highly concordant and deeply disturbing fantasy is
|
|
involved in the pathogenesis of a condition otherwise seen only
|
|
following externally induced trauma. Further, if this is found to be
|
|
the case, the nature of PTSD itself should be re-examined in light of
|
|
this finding. Alternatively, it may be that the trauma is, in fact, an
|
|
external one which has taken place and the post traumatic state
|
|
represents an expected response on the part of a traumatized patient.
|
|
|
|
It is not within the area of expertise of the clinician to make an
|
|
accurate determination about the objective validity of UFO abduction
|
|
events. But it is certainly within his purview to assist the patient
|
|
in regaining a sense of appropriate mastery, anxiety reduction and the
|
|
alleviation of the clinical symptomalogy as efficiently and
|
|
effectively as possible. This is best accomplished through an
|
|
assessment the patient's *actual* state of psycho-dynamic
|
|
organization, not his *presumed* state. In other words, in order to
|
|
make the diagnosis of a psychotic or delusional state, findings other
|
|
than the presence of a belief in UFO abduction must be present. In the
|
|
absence of other indications of severe psychopathology, it is
|
|
inappropriate to treat the patient as if he were afflicted with such
|
|
psychopathology. It lies outside the realm of clinical expertise to
|
|
determine with absolute certainty whether or not a UFO abduction has
|
|
indeed taken place. Patients should not be viewed as demonstrating
|
|
prima facie evidence of pervasive psychotic dysfunction because of the
|
|
abduction material alone nor should they be hospitalized or treated
|
|
with anti-psychotic medication based solely on the presence of UFO
|
|
abduction scenarios. Instead, they should be assessed on the basis of
|
|
their overall psychologic state. Unless otherwise indicated, treatment
|
|
should be focused on the PTSD symptomatology and its repair.
|
|
|
|
The areas of discrepancy which arise from the examination of UFO
|
|
abductees between the expected clinical finding and the observed ones
|
|
highlight interesting questions which require further investigation
|
|
into the nature and impact of fantasy on psycho-dynamic states and
|
|
symptom formation.
|
|
|
|
-!------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
(1)Westrum, R., Social Intelligence About Hidden Events,
|
|
Knowledge:Creation, Diffusion, Utilization, Vol 3 No 3, March 1982,
|
|
p.382
|
|
|
|
(2)Hopkins, B. Missing Time: A Documented Study of UFO Abductions. New
|
|
York, Richard Marek 1981.
|
|
|
|
(3)Slater, E., Ph.D. "Conclusions on Nine Psychologicals" in Final
|
|
Report on the Psychological Testing of UFO Abductees" Mt Ranier, MD,
|
|
1985
|
|
|
|
(4)Slater, E., Ph.D. Addendum to "Conclusions on Nine Psychological"
|
|
in Final Report on the Psychological Testing of UFO "Abductees",
|
|
op.cit.
|
|
|
|
(5)Creighton, G. "The Amazing Case of Antonio Villas Boas" in Rogo,
|
|
|
|
D>S>, ed., Alien Abductions. New York, New American Library, pp.
|
|
|
|
51-83, 1980.
|
|
|
|
(6)Hopkins,B. Missing Time: A Documented Study of UFO Abductions.
|
|
op.cit.
|
|
|
|
(7)Druffel,A. "Harrison Bailey and the 'Flying Saucer Disease'" in
|
|
Rogo, S.D., ed., op.cit. pp. 122-137
|
|
|
|
(8)Strieber, W. Communion. New York, Avon, 1987
|
|
|
|
(9)Fowler, R. The Andreasson Affair. New York, Bantam Books, 1979
|
|
|
|
(10)Fuller, J. The Interrupted Journey. New York, Dell, 1966
|
|
|
|
(11)Hopkins, B. Intruders: The Incredible Visitation at Copley Woods.
|
|
New York, Random House, 1987
|
|
|
|
(12)Hopkins, B. Personal communications with the author about the more
|
|
than 200 abductees whom Mr. Hopkins has investigated both with and
|
|
without the use of hypnosis.
|
|
|
|
(13)Westrum, R. personal communication with the author.
|
|
|
|
(14)Hopkins, B. personal communication with the author.
|
|
|
|
(15)Hopkins, B. "The Investigation of UFO Reports" in The Spectrum of
|
|
UFO Research. Proceedings of the Second CUFOS Conference (September
|
|
25-27, 1981), Hynek, M. ed., pp 171-2, Chicago, J. Allen Hynek Center
|
|
for UFO Studies, 1988.
|
|
|
|
(16)Kardiner, A., The Traumatic Neuroses of War. New York, P. Hoeber,
|
|
1941
|
|
|
|
(17)van Der Kolk, B.A., Psychological Trauma. Washington, DC, American
|
|
Psychiatric Press, 1987
|
|
|
|
(18)Horowitz,M.J., Stress Response Syndromes. New York, Jason
|
|
Aronson,1976
|
|
|
|
(19)van Der Kolk, op.cit.
|
|
|
|
(20)American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical
|
|
Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd ed. Washington, DC, American
|
|
Psychiatric Association, 1980
|
|
|
|
(21)Slater, op.cit.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**********************************************
|
|
* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
|
|
********************************************** |