They Know Us Better Than We Know Ourselves: The History and Politics of Alien Abduction

Bridget Brown

NYU Press, 2007 - History - 247 pages

What's really behind Americans' persistent belief in alien abductions?

Since its emergence in the 1960s, belief in alien abduction has saturated popular culture, with the ubiquitous image of the almond-eyed alien appearing on everything from bumper stickers to bars of soap. Drawing on interviews with alleged abductees from the New York area, Bridget Brown suggests a new way for people to think about the alien phenomenon, one that is concerned not with establishing whether aliens actually exist, but with understanding what belief in aliens in America may tell us about our changing understanding of ourselves and our place in the world.

They Know Us Better Than We Know Ourselves looks at how the belief in abduction by extraterrestrials is constituted by and through popular discourse and the images provided by print, film, and television. Brown contends that the abduction phenomenon is symptomatic of a period during which people have come to feel increasingly divested of the ability to know what is real or true about themselves and the world in which they live. The alien abduction phenomenon helps us think about how people who feel left out create their own stories and fashion truths that square with their own experience of the world.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• The Trauma and Recovery of Alien Abduction: 21
• Abduction Traumatists: 37
• The Intimate Invasion of Alien Technology: 70
• 5 An Ongoing and Systematic Breeding Experiment: 83
• Conspiracy Theory as Alternative History: 100
• Conspiracy Theory and the War against Citizens: 121
• Abductees and the Burden of Global Consciousness: 142
• The Limits of Chosenness: 160
• Abductee Culture Abductee Belief: 177
• Alien Abduction and the New Face of Terror: 207
• Notes: 211
• Bibliography: 239
• Index: 243
• About the Author: 247

About the author

Bridget Brown teaches writing at Montclair State University. She received her Ph.D. in American Studies from New York University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: They Know Us Better Than We Know Ourselves: The History and Politics of Alien Abduction
• Author: Bridget Brown
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: NYU Press, 2007
• ISBN: 0814799221, 9780814799222
• Length: 247 pages
• Subjects: Body, Mind & Spirit / UFOs & Extraterrestrials; History / Social History; Social Science / Popular Culture