1998 00 00 Science Fiction Studies - V 25, I 1 - Remarks on Narratives of Alien Abduction - Roger Luckhurst

Magazine Overview

This document is an excerpt from the academic journal *Science Fiction Studies*, Volume 25, Number 1, published in March 1998 by SF-TH Inc. The article featured is "The Science-Fictionalization of Trauma: Remarks on Narratives of Alien Abduction" by Roger Luckhurst.

The Science-Fictionalization of Trauma: Remarks on Narratives of Alien Abduction

Roger Luckhurst's article argues that the rise of alien abduction narratives in the 1980s and 1990s is a significant cultural phenomenon that has been inadequately addressed by science fiction criticism. He contends that these narratives represent a "science-fictionalization" of trauma and contemporary subjectivity, wherein science fiction provides the generic framework for understanding and expressing these experiences. Luckhurst criticizes the historical separation between science fiction (sf) and UFOlogy, suggesting that sf critics possess the interdisciplinary skills necessary to analyze the complex factors contributing to the abduction phenomenon.

Luckhurst posits that the cultural availability of abduction narratives is a result of an "overdetermined matrix of factors." These include:

1. Shifts in Psychotherapeutic Methodology: The emergence of recovered memory and the focus on abuse (sexual or otherwise) as the determining "secret" of subjectivity, increasingly defined by memory and trauma.
2. Technological Transformations: Rapid changes in technology and their impact on everyday experience, contributing to the discourse of the "American technological sublime."
3. Challenges to Scientific Authority: The rise of New Age countercultures and a questioning of established scientific discourse.
4. Political Disaffection: Apathy towards Washington politics leading to a sublimation in post-war conspiracy theories.

He elaborates on the typical "abduction scenario," which often involves a gap in memory ("missing time"), followed by the reconstruction of events, predominantly through hypnotic regression. This scenario, he argues, functions as an "explanation" of trauma, with individuals adopting the "abductee" identity. Luckhurst emphasizes that while alien abduction may not be factually true, it is not simply false, as it addresses real traumatic responses.

Luckhurst traces the evolution of the abduction narrative, from the Betty and Barney Hill case in 1961, which was initially interpreted differently, to the work of Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs, who increasingly focused on "reproductive procedures" and "long-term, specific, experimental purpose" of alien interactions. He notes that debates within the field, such as the 1992 MIT conference, highlight genre-like discussions about what constitutes the core meaning of abduction.

The article delves into "Memoro-Politics," discussing how the concept of memory and identity has been destabilized since 1980. Forgetting, rather than remembering, has become a site of political contestation. The emphasis on recovered memory, particularly concerning sexual abuse, has profoundly influenced therapeutic practices and created a space for abduction narratives. Luckhurst points out that the "Satanic abuse scare" and the "Believe the Children" campaigns have elevated personal accounts, sometimes regardless of content, and redefined trauma as being determined by the patient's reactions rather than the event itself.

He argues that abduction narratives are deeply implicated in suggestion, particularly through hypnotic and non-hypnotic recovery methods. The reliance on hypnosis is seen as a mechanism that "unlocks hidden truth" for some, while for others, it is the source of "false memory." Luckhurst critiques the research methods of figures like Hopkins and Mack, suggesting that their assertions about technique undermine their credibility and demonstrate a "catastrophic mimetic mirroring effect" where the recovery technique itself mirrors the supposed cause of the trauma.

Luckhurst also explores the theoretical underpinnings of trauma, referencing thinkers like Jean-François Lyotard and Ann Scott, who suggest that trauma can inscribe effects without being fully memorized, leading to a "dispersed" or "expelled" memory. This "gap" in signification and memorialization compels narrativization, and genre stories, like those of abduction, can become a way to suture this gap.

He concludes by noting that the "most worrying element of abduction accounts is the way in which" they can be used to explain away other forms of trauma, such as sexual abuse by fathers, by displacing the source of trauma to an extraterrestrial realm. This displacement, while offering a symbolic distance, risks oversimplifying complex issues and mimicking the current "memory politics" that prioritize certain narratives.

Recurring Themes and Editorial Stance

The recurring themes in this article include the intersection of science fiction and UFOlogy, the nature of trauma and memory, the influence of therapeutic practices on cultural narratives, and the construction of subjectivity in contemporary America. The editorial stance of *Science Fiction Studies*, as evidenced by this article, is to critically engage with phenomena that blur the lines between genre fiction and cultural belief systems, applying rigorous academic analysis to subjects often relegated to the "lunatic fringe."

Title: SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES
Issue: VOLUME 24
Year: (1997)
Document Type: Magazine Issue

This issue of "SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES" delves into "THE SCIENCE-FICTIONALIZATION OF TRAUMA," exploring how contemporary cultural phenomena, particularly alien abduction narratives, are shaped by and reflect science fiction tropes, technological advancements, and societal anxieties.

The Science-Fictionalization of Trauma

The article posits that alien abduction accounts are propelled by traumatic gaps in memory, with conviction and consistency derived from "generic suturing." This leads to an examination of the forces dictating the choice of genre, specifically the science-fictionalization of trauma.

The Technological Sublime

The concept of the "technological sublime" is introduced as a key element in understanding contemporary subjectivity and the experience of abduction. This refers to the reorganization of memory around "punctual gaps" and "little catastrophes of representational failure," invoking a sense of terror followed by recovery. The sublime is linked to technology, which is seen as having a "uniquely problematic and unrepresentable content." Technological analogies, such as "switching" like television channels or processing words on a computer, are used to describe how trauma is decomposed and recomposed. In post-industrial, technologically saturated America, the boundary between science fiction and social reality is described as an "optical illusion." The distress of "missing time" is presented as a predominant motif for discussions of the technologized contemporary world, where technology promises mastery and the lifting of the burden of linear time. Electrical failures, power surges, and digital clocks are cited as markers of this technological sublime.

Alien abduction procedures are seen as products of the "intense technologization of medicine," particularly in reproduction, where scientific advances have outstripped medical ethics. The article discusses how mothers are systematically displaced from the medical gaze, becoming "maternal cyborgs." This is contextualized with the anti-abortion lobby's tactics and the project of alien abduction to produce hybrid children. While Satanism deploys "body horror," abduction is described as more properly "sublime," with terror replaced by pathos or ecstasy. The technological superiority of aliens is often associated with a loss of emotion, a trope in science fiction.

The technological sublime is also linked to the space program, which expropriates "wordless awe" for nationalist ends. Rocket launches are seen as technological spectacles that can lift individuals out of the quotidian. The "shadowy other" of advanced aeronautic technology is the UFO, an "uncanny double to American technology" since the coining of "flying saucer" in 1947.

Telegraphic messages, telephone conversations, and early photography are cited as historical examples of technology being associated with visions, spirits, and the paranormal. The UFO is presented as a double to rockets and aircraft, embodying a "spectrality effect" where an agency is projected onto a lifeless technological object. This suggests that in a technologically saturated world, the space of "irrational excess" has been colonized by technology, leading to the question of whether Victorian spirits have become postmodern aliens.

For David Nye, the continuity of technology as an affirmation of American nationhood has been disrupted since 1945, with the atom bomb and nuclear reactor making terror a principal characteristic. The technological sublime "manifests a split between those who understand and control machines and those who do not." Disaffection, suspicion, and terror at science and technology lead to responses like New Ageism and conspiracy theories.

New Ageism

The Frankfurt School's theory of instrumental rationality is discussed in relation to contemporary social thought, where technology has become increasingly universal. Scientific discourse is seen as a "powerful form of hegemony." Intellectual critique is overshadowed by populist and mystical responses. Carl Jung's writings on UFOs are mentioned, interpreting them as a call to remember the soul and wholeness. The two main schools of thought on abduction are disaster (Jacobs and Hopkins) and revelation (Fowler, Mack, and Strieber). The New Age movement is defined as a "countercultural formation in an age of technocratic crisis." Mack's appeal lies in abduction shattering "consensus reality" and offering a position of self-protection against Western rationality. This discourse is linked to "ego-death," near-death experiences, meditation, and shamanism, beginning with an apocalypse and ending in personal growth. Some individuals become healers and environmentalists, adopting terms like "experiencer" or "encountrant." The success of books like "The Celestine Prophesy" suggests a large grouping around a countercultural ethos. New Ageism is seen as both countermodern and exemplary of modernity, conforming to the late capitalist subject while attacking science and technology, yet seeking scientific legitimation.

Raymond Fowler, an openly New Ageist researcher, links abduction experiences to nature religions and Native American mythology. Betty's description of a UFO landing includes technical jargon and a "sublime response" to the spectacle, with the aliens conveying messages of love for mankind and concern for the planet. The spirituality of these aliens is dependent on their technology, and the fascination with alien abduction stems from "terror's inverse."

Technological progress is used to enhance the efficacy of "transporting people into other realms." The Heaven's Gate mass suicide is cited as a bizarre conjunction of hightech, UFO mythology, and millenarian cultism. Abduction and New Ageism are seen as contemporary responses that reiterate arguments from the late nineteenth century, when paradigms in psychology and physics were shifting. The rhetoric of figures like Mack is compared to Frederic Myers, who coined the term "telepathy" and attacked the limits of Western science. Victorian psychical researchers are likened to modern UFOlogists, challenging orthodox science with a mystical project while clinging to scientific methodology. Raymond Fowler is compared to Oliver Lodge, and Théodore Flournoy's work with Hélène Smith is mentioned.

The boundary between science and pseudoscience is occupied by New Ageism, UFOlogy, and science fiction. Vivian Sobchack's position that science fiction should be seen in a spectrum including religious and magical elements is supported.

Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy theories, including those involving MIBs, MJ-12, HPACS, and RHIC, are presented as a "pervasive cultural paranoia in America." UFO conspiracies and abduction research have merged in the popular imaginary. These theories conform to a "paranoid style" characterized by conviction in massive infiltration, millenarian angst, and an "evil genius of the enemy." They interweave left-leaning concerns about industrial capital and government agencies with rightist suspicions of "big government." The government is seen as either complicit in a cover-up or ignorant of alien presence. The military might be experimenting with alien technology or be powerless against intrusion.

The structure of trauma and the sublime is repeated in conspiracy theory, which focuses on "gaps, with missing documents or silenced speech." The maxim "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" allows for the filling of any empty space with knowledge of alien presence. Theorists are obsessed with what lies beneath blacked-out lines of government documents and blank accounts for military budgets. The alleged excision from the tape of Armstrong's moonwalk is given as an example of filling gaps with knowledge of alien presence. Randle and Schmitt's assertion that evidence for the Roswell crash would be found if released is cited as an example of how these theorists construct narratives to fill perceived holes.

This "mimicry of rationalism and entirely coherent systems of belief" caused Freud anxiety in dealing with paranoiacs. Abduction conspiracy theories are described as highly intelligent and perceptive in discerning manipulations of the military-industrial complex, even if based on shaky theses. Jameson considers conspiracy theory "the beginning of wisdom."

The science-fictionalization of conspiracy is explored, questioning why espionage thriller and detective fiction genres, which sufficed for Kennedy and Watergate, are now insufficient. This shift is linked to crises in "ontological Being-in-the-world" and Brian McHale's suggestion that sf has replaced detective fiction as the exemplary genre in postmodernist fiction. Abduction initially seems close to the paranoia experienced by Schreber, with themes of emasculation, impregnation, and "terrifying" visions of the end of the world. Freud viewed this system as a product of a father-complex. The conspiratorial structure is seen as emerging at a moment when the American Constitution is perceived as having gone wrong, and there is a sense of "traumatic disruption to American manifest destiny." Disclosures concerning government invasions of citizenry and the advent of transnational capital contribute to a feeling of a "world-wide disembodied yet increasingly total system of relationships and networks." Narratives of alien abduction are presented as an exemplary allegorical site, more so than cyberpunk, due to their use of culturally available sf tropes. The article suggests that this science-fictional framework of abduction allegorizes post-national anxiety and perversely reiterates the foundation of America, an economy based on the abduction of Africans into slavery. The US becoming a debtor nation to Japan is also seen as a form of "abduction."

Conclusion: The X-Files

"The X-Files" is described as a "peculiar sort of 'documentary' compendium of pseudo-scientific and conspiratorial texts." Conspiracy theories are seen as relying on "the alluringly corny plots of popular culture." The series is both reflective and constitutive of conspiracy about abduction and cover-up.

Thematically, "The X-Files" touches on past life regression, Satanic abuse, hypnotic recovery, and arguments about the efficacy of hypnotic recovery. Mulder experiences flashbacks of childhood and abduction, while Scully experiences abduction. The technological sublime informs the series, with encounters at Area 51 and the use of biotechnological advances. The series also incorporates New Age elements, such as Near Death Experiences, and appropriates cultural rituals. It features a predilection for exoticizing other cultures.

The "arc" of the series "cannibalizes conspiracy material more opportunistically than coherently," drawing from films like "The Manchurian Candidate" and "The Conversation." The extraterrestrial and governmental conspiracy interweaves industrial and military complicity, referencing Axis power atrocities and "genetic" surveillance. "Real world" conspiracies, such as safe passage for Japanese and German doctors after 1945, are woven in. Scully's outburst that "apology has become policy" is a reference to Clinton's recent public apology.

Alien abduction is the "prime motor force" of the series, with Chris Carter nominating John Mack's "Abduction" as inspiration. The "Abduction" trilogy is described as a "wholly engineered scenario." The episode "José Chung's From Outer Space" is highlighted for its witty demolition of alien abduction by overloading conspiratorial plots, presenting abduction as a "confabulation of ceaselessly shifting renarration, suggestibility, and dubious hypnotic recovery - a new genre - a non-fiction science fiction."

The success of "The X-Files" is attributed to the character of Fox Mulder, who is invested with a "powerful aura of melancholy." His intra-familial traumas are transcoded into extrafamilial politics, seamlessly linking the personal and political. The series explores the idea that the origin of post-war conspiracy concerns paternal legacy, rendering family and state as mutually informing structures. The series is seen as a displaced narrative of abuse, with the father choosing the "abduction" of the daughter. Mulder represents a resistance to the "intermittency of subjectivity" in the contemporary moment, fighting "phantasmal Controllers of the object-world." His science-fictionalized contents for these gaps are continually grasped and lost. The series allows momentary access onto "figurations of the total archive," which constitute the "final resting places of the truth of the excised, traumatic gap."

The allegory of abduction, with Scully ensuring it remains allegorical, speaks to a "potentially vast array of cultural concerns." The series depends on "suspended finality," exploiting the "anxiety of the structural absence as constitutive of subjectivity." Something is felt to be missing, whether personal memory, familial trauma, technologized excisions, or the loss of transparent governmentality. Alien abduction is presented as the science fiction that can articulate these gaps within a compelling narrative that places agency and responsibility "out there."

Narratives of alien abduction and abduction research are defined as "marginal science," an extension of pseudoscience like mesmerism and psychical research. Despite the contempt and dismissal from the majority, the scenario of alien abduction is argued to be a significant cultural phenomenon.

Recurring Themes and Editorial Stance

The recurring themes in this issue revolve around the intersection of trauma, technology, and popular culture, particularly as manifested in alien abduction narratives and the "technological sublime." The magazine adopts an analytical and critical stance, examining how these phenomena are constructed and interpreted within the context of science fiction and broader cultural anxieties. There is a clear emphasis on deconstructing the narratives of abduction, conspiracy, and New Ageism, linking them to historical precedents and contemporary societal shifts. The editorial stance appears to be one that recognizes the cultural significance of these themes while critically analyzing their underlying psychological, social, and technological drivers, particularly as exemplified by the popular series "The X-Files."

This issue of SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES, Volume 24 (1997), features the article "THE SCIENCE-FICTIONALIZATION OF TRAUMA." The magazine's focus is on academic analysis of science fiction and related cultural phenomena.

The Science-Fictionalization of Trauma

The central article by an unnamed author (indicated by the '(RL)' at the end of the abstract) posits that alien abduction narratives, often dismissed by the academic community, are a significant cultural phenomenon worthy of study. The author argues that these narratives are evidence of an increasing "science-fictionalisation" of contemporary American culture. The essay identifies four key vectors contributing to the rise of abduction stories:

1. Shifts in Conceptions of Memory and Subjectivity: This includes the impact of claims surrounding "recovered memory" and hypnotic regression in American psychiatry.
2. Technological Fears: Increasing anxieties about the intrusiveness of a technologically saturated world and the extension of the discourse of the American technological sublime.
3. New Ageism: The emergence of a distinctive counter-cultural New Age movement that articulates UFO visitations within broader discourses of spiritual evolution.
4. Conspiracy Theories: An intensification of post-war American conspiracy theories and suspicions directed at "big government."

The author contends that while the claims of UFOlogists and abduction researchers may seem outlandish, the phenomenon itself offers insights into the social meanings of science, paranoid conspiracies, and the transformations of technologically advanced life-worlds. Abduction narratives provide a lens through which to view shifting modes of conceiving contemporary subjectivity through the categories of memory and trauma.

The essay suggests that science fiction has moved beyond its genre boundaries to "colonize the real," and that these sub- and mass-cultural accounts are crucial for understanding this process. It highlights that sf may be more useful for "irrational" belief systems than for rational/cognitive accounts.

The article references several key works and figures in the field, including Budd Hopkins, Octavia Butler's novel *Dawn*, John Mack, and Richard Hofstadter's concept of the "Paranoid Style in American Politics." It also touches upon the influence of media like *The X-Files* in synthesizing these elements.

The author concludes by suggesting that abduction narratives are the science-fictionalized products of a felt intermittency of subjectivity in contemporary America.

Specific Examples and References:

• Budd Hopkins: Criticized for a "junk-jewelry vision" of UFOs, arguing that basic sci-fi myths cannot capture the "ethical complexity" of actual abduction accounts.
• Gibson's "The Gernsback Continuum" and Gwyneth Jones' *White Queen* are mentioned as contemporary sf works that engage with UFOlogy ironically or with sly references.
• Octavia Butler's *Dawn* is presented as a novel that proceeds from a classic abduction scenario, involving amnesia, examination, and coercion into a hybrid breeding program, aligning with apocalyptic visions reported by abductees.
• The "American" Nature of Abduction Narratives: The author insists that abduction narratives are fundamentally American, with investment and collation of reports being primarily American concerns, despite global collection of experiences.
• UFOlogists' Views: Jenny Randles in England views abduction as psychological, while Timothy Good offers anecdotal accounts from Britain.
• Conspiracy Theories: The role of "Men in Black" (agents who discredit witnesses), "Majestic-12" (involved in the Roswell crash), and government "conditioning" of the public through media like TV shows and movies are discussed.
• Influence of Media: *The Day the Earth Stood Still*, *Close Encounters*, and *Star Trek: The Next Generation* are cited as examples of how governments might use fiction to "educate" the public about a "larger reality."
• Phineas Gage: Scully's profile in *The X-Files* is compared to Phineas Gage, linking to discussions of brain neurology and trauma.
• Marginal Science: The definition of "marginal science" by Seymour Mauskopf is used.
• Historical Context: References are made to works on mesmerism, spiritualism, and the cultural meaning of popular science in Victorian England.

Works Cited:

The issue includes an extensive "WORKS CITED" section, listing numerous academic and popular sources related to science fiction, trauma, memory, psychoanalysis, UFOs, conspiracy theories, and cultural studies. Notable authors and works include:

• Antze, Paul, and Michael Lambek (eds.)
• Aronowitz, Stanley
• Bersani, Leo
• Borch-Jacobsen, Mikkel
• Bryan, C.D.B. (*Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction and UFOs*)
• Clark, Steven, and Elisabeth Loftus (*The Construction of Space Alien Abduction Memories*)
• Fowler, Raymond E. (*The Watchers: The Secret Design Behind UFO Abduction*)
• Gibson, William (*Burning Chrome*)
• Good, Timothy (*Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up*)
• Gray, Chris Hables (ed.) (*The Cyborg Handbook*)
• Hacking, Ian (*Reconstructing Individualism*, *Rewriting the Soul*)
• Haraway, Donna (*A Manifesto for Cyborgs*)
• Hofstadter, Richard (*The Paranoid Style in American Politics*)
• Hopkins, Budd (*Intruders*, *Missing Time*)
• Jacobs, David (*Secret Life*)
• Jameson, Fredric (*The Geopolitical Aesthetic*, *Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism*)
• Jones, Gwyneth (*White Queen*)
• Jung, Carl (*Flying Saucers*)
• Kirmayer, Laurence
• Kuhn, Thomas (*The Structure of Scientific Revolutions*)
• Lawson, A H.
• Leys, Ruth
• Lindemann, Michael (ed.) (*UFOs and the Alien Presence*)
• Lyotard, Jean-Francois (*The Inhuman*)
• Mack, John (*Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens*)
• Masson, Jeffrey (*The Assault on Truth*)
• McLeod, Carolin, Barbara Corbisier, and John Mack
• Myers, Frederick
• Nelson, Joyce
• Newman, Leonard and Roy Baumeister
• Nye, David (*American Technological Sublime*)
• O'Donnell, Patrick
• Ofshe, Richard, and Ethan Watters (*Making Monsters*)
• Persinger, M A.
• Randle, Kevin, and Donald Schmitt (*UFO Crash at Roswell*)
• Ross, Andrew (*Strange Weather*)
• Scott, Ann (*Real Events Revisited*)
• Shapin, Steven (*Science and the Public*)
• Simpson, Lorenzo
• Strieber, Whitley (*Communion*, *Transformation*)
• Wright, Lawrence (*Remembering Satan*)

Recurring Themes and Editorial Stance

The recurring theme in this issue is the academic analysis of phenomena often relegated to the fringes of popular culture and belief, specifically alien abduction narratives. The editorial stance, as evidenced by the article's content and the journal's nature, is to treat these subjects seriously as cultural artifacts that reveal deeper societal trends, anxieties, and modes of understanding. The journal engages with "marginal science" and "pseudo-scientific legitimation" not to endorse them, but to understand their cultural significance and their intersection with science fiction and contemporary subjectivity. The overall approach is critical and analytical, seeking to understand the "science-fictionalisation" of trauma and belief within American culture.