all Richard J. McNally stories

Not unusual to forget childhood sexual abuse

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:46:50 -0400

When questioned closely by psychologists from Harvard University about their feelings, victims of childhood sexual abuse revealed some surprising impressions.

First, the abuse apparently was not seen as traumatic, terrifying, life threatening, or violent at the time. "It hurt," said one man who was raped as a boy. "And after a while I knew it was wrong, but not at the beginning." Only two out of the 27 recalled feeling traumatized at the time, report psychologists Susan Clancy and Richard McNally.

Some psychologists believe that forgetting childhood sexual abuse is a deep-seated unconscious blocking out of the event, an involuntary mechanism that automatically keeps painful memories out of consciousness. Clancy and McNally's work leads them to conclude that it's just ordinary forgetting.

"I never told anyone," said one victim. "Basically, I just forgot about it."

"Memories of childhood sexual assault can slip from awareness in the same way that ordinary memories can," Clancy asserts. Everyday forgetting can include voluntary suppression, insufficient reminders, or avoidance. "A failure to think about something is not the same as being unable to remember it," McNally adds.

A major reason for such "normal forgetting" is that the abuse, even multiple episodes, was not seen as terrifying or life threatening at the time. But how about later when the violations were recalled? All 27 of those assaulted reported multiple negative effects from the abuse, such as loss of trust in people, difficulties with relationships, sexual problems, loss of self- esteem, mental health problems, or alienation. "It may be recovered memories of the assaults as traumatic, rather than the event itself being that way, that is responsible for these adverse impacts," Clancy concludes.

Alien abduction claims explained

50443248 — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:01:52 -0400

Many of the people who believe they have been abducted by aliens are bombarding Susan Clancy with hate e-mails and phone calls. The Harvard researcher, who has spent five years listening to the stories of some 50 abductees, has described her (and their) experiences in a new book to be published in October.
Clancy, 36, likes most of these people. "They are definitely not crazy," she says. But they do have "a tendency to fantasize and to hold unusual beliefs and ideas. They believe not only in alien abductions, but also in things like UFOs, ESP, astrology, tarot, channeling, auras, and crystal therapy. They also have in common a rash of disturbing experiences for which they are seeking an explanation. For them, alien abduction is the best fit."

Alien abduction claims explained

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:21:57 -0400

Abduction stories are strikingly similar. Victims wake up and find themselves paralyzed, unable to move or cry out for help. They see flashing lights and hear buzzing sounds. Electric sensations zing through their bodies, which may rise up in levitation. Aliens with wrap-around eyes, gray or green skin, lacking hair or noses, approach. The abductee's heart pounds violently. There's lots of probing in the alien ship. Instruments are inserted in their noses, navels, or other orifices. It's painful. Sometimes sexual intercourse occurs.

Then it's over, after seconds or minutes.

Starship memories

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:25:36 -0400

Psychologists are at odds over the idea that people can forget traumatic events then "recover" intact memories of the trauma years later. On one side are clinicians, who observe that painful memories can be repressed, banished from a trauma survivor's consciousness until they're "recovered" with the help of certain psychotherapeutic techniques in adulthood. Memory researchers, on the other hand, say that people don't repress traumatic events. When people report recovered memories of traumatic events, assert these cognitive psychologists, they are most likely creating false memories. Intrigued by this debate, and its enormous political, legal, and social implications, Susan Clancy's research led her into the world of people who believe they were abducted by aliens.

Alien abduction claims examined

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:29:20 -0400

Richard McNally, a Harvard professor of psychology, and his colleagues recruited six women and four men who claimed they had been spirited away by extraterrestrials, some of them more than once. Under hypnosis, seven of the 10 reported having had their sperm or eggs extracted for breeding purposes, or experiencing direct sexual contact with the space aliens. Each of these people was interviewed by either McNally or Susan Clancy, also a professor of psychology. Each also wrote a script that told the story of his or her abduction. The research team then made audiotapes, spoken in a neutral voice, from the scripts. The abductees listened to these tapes in the laboratory of Scott Orr at the Veteran's Affairs Medical Center in Manchester, N.H.