Freud and UFOs

No, I’m not referring to anything like Jung’s exegesis Flying Saucers : A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies.

What I propose is that for Freud, sexuality underlay (no pun) everything human, and his thesis, discarded a few years back but receiving a renaissance in academe and other scholarly disciplines, accounts for an understanding of what’s amiss in society today (and always has been).

But in ufology (aside from the few perverse episodes by some), sexuality has played little or no part in the interpretation of the phenomenon.

Yes, abductee (experiencer) accounts are fraught with unconscious (previously repressed) elements with a sexual influence, most serious, like sexual abuse or molestation in childhood. But that’s not what I propose to deal with here.

My point is the UFO is not seen as a sexual replacement, sublimated or not, in the literature.

Sure, some will point to cigar-shaped UFOs as a sexual projection, but even Freud said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

War, politics, conducting and orchestra, performing on stage, and advertising, among a raft of other activities, can be deigned to be sexual in motivation, unconscious and overt, and we all know that, or should.

But UFOs, not at all.

Few UFO reports, Villas Boas aside (as we all know that was a CIA/AID concoction: See Nick Redfern’s book, Contactees for a full explanation), have a sexual patina, which allows one to think that such reports are actual and comport with an actuality, Zoam Chomsky’s tirades to the contrary sidelined accordingly.

As a full-fledged Freudian, despite my friend, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson’s brilliant exposé in 1984 -- The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory – I see sexuality as the original sin, the human behavior that has been deconstructed by us to the point that mankind is adrift from its transcendental purpose. (See Human Destiny by Pierre Lecomte du Noüy)

Yet, UFOs, despite the quirkiness and oddity of the phenomenon and ongoing mystery,

Remains uncluttered, pretty much, by any sexual association.

This makes for a pristine examination of the phenomenon, without any of the vicissitudes that besmirch most other human endeavors.

So, have at it, you sexually suppressed rascals, and come up with a reasonable, rational account of what UFOs are – and they indeed are, even though they represent nothing as profound as a romp in the hay, as we used to say.

RR

Science Wonder Stories [1929] By: Frank R. Paul

How much did covers like this affect flying saucer/UFO "witnesses" in the late 1940-1970 time frame?

A flying saucer image, such as the one pictured here, would surely influence persons arriving at post-pubertal ages and well into their 30s and beyond.

It influenced Adamski apparently, but whom else in UFO lore was also directed neurologically to recall such a striking aircraft image when they observed something strange during the flying saucer heyday?

Impressionable images will replace. mentally (in situ or as a memory) what was actually seen, if one is inclined toward an extraterrestrial or exotic (Earth-derived) flying machine.

Jules Verne's 1886 Robur the Conqueror was, in part, the stimulus for the 1896 Airship "observations."

What UFO accounts were spurred by such iconic tales and imagery, as a result of an over-animated mind-set?

Upcoming I'll tie some notable UFO sightings/events to images from media.

Yes, this has been done before, but without, generally, a determined or specific association to a witness.

What suggestive sightings do you have?

RR