Date:   Wed Jun 29 1994  23:08:00
From:   Tim Joiner
To:     All
Subj:   Mack's patients
UFO                            -------------------------------

   Recent discussion on this echo centered around whether or not
Dr. John Mack had performed any psychological tests on his
subjects.  Below are a few paragraphs from his book, taken
from pages 16-17, that deal with this subject. As you will see,
although he specifically states that four subjects were given a
complete battery of tests, he fails to mention whether any of
those four were among the cases reported in the book.

### Begin excerpt from "Abduction", by Dr. John Mack ###

  Efforts to establish a pattern of psychopathology other than
disturbances associated with a traumatic event have been
unsuccessful. Psychological testing of abductees has not
revealed evidence of mental or emotional disturbance that could
account for their reported experiences (Bloecher, Clamar, and
Hopkins 1985; Parnell 1986; Parnell and Sprinkle 1990;
Rodeghier, Goodpaster, and Blatterbauer 1991; Slater 1985;
Spanos et al. 1993; Stone-Carmen, in press). My own sample
demonstrates a broad range of mental health and emotional
adaptation. Some experiencers are highly functioning individuals
who seem mainly to need support in integrating their abduction
experiences with the rest of their lives. Others verge on being
overwhelmed by the traumatic impact and philosophical
implications of their experiences and need a great deal of
counseling and emotional support.
   The administration of a full battery of psychometric tests is
time-consuming and expensive. I have undertaken to have four of
my cases tested by Ph.D. psychologists. One twenty-one-year-old
man, who I knew was quite troubled - one of two of my
seventy-six cases who had to be hospitalized for psychiatric
reasons - revealed a complex picture of emotional disturbance
and troubled thinking in which cause and effect in relation to
the abduction experiences could not be sorted out. The other
three tested in the normal range with no obvious psychopathology
found.
   The effort to discover a personality type associated with
abductions has also not been successful (Basterfield and
Bartholomew 1988; Basterfield, in press; Mack, in press;
Rodeghier, Goodpaster, and Blatterbauer 1991). Psychologist
Kenneth Ring has posited the notion of an encounter-prone
personality (Ring 1992; Ring and Rosing 1990), a tendency of an
individual who has been affected by unusual experiences to be
more open to them in the future. But in this, as in any
hypothesis concerning the personalities of abductees, it is
important to keep in mind that the encounters may in many
instances be found to have begun in early infancy, and children
as young as two years old have talked of their abduction
experiences. I have two boys under three in my own sample. Cause
and effect in the relationship of abduction to building of
personality are thus virtually impossible to sort out.

### End Excerpt ###

   One obvious point is that Dr. Mack has not expressed the method
used to select the four subjects for testing from his total
sample of 76. He mentions that one young man was "quite troubled",
and the implication is that he was certain beforehand that this
individual would show signs of mental illness. If this is so,
was he chosen for testing _because of this, or in _spite of it?

   And what of the other three cases? Were they "best-case" or
"worst-case" patients, were they the first three he treated, or
were they chosen at random? Has anyone heard him comment on this?

   Tim


