Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the printed record of a July 29, 1968 symposium on unidentified flying objects held by the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. The committee heard statements from six scientists: J. Allen Hynek, James E. McDonald, Carl Sagan, Robert L. Hall, James A. Harder and Robert M. L. Baker. It also printed papers from Donald Menzel, Stanton Friedman, Frank Salisbury and others. Hynek argued that puzzling UFO reports from competent witnesses deserve serious scientific study.
“Nevers”43 pages
170 Mood: The patient appears to be moderately depressed; his posture is slightly slumped, his expression often dejected, and he sighs frequently. His general affect borders an being flat but is not otherwise inappropriate. He fails to show any enthusiasm about anything, claims he has no special interests or hobbies. He seems basically apathetic about both his present and future life. Although constricted but not highly controlled, his anxiety is poorly masked when he talks about conflictual material and certain feelings. Thought Content: Subject is generally guarded about what and how much he says. When put under some stress by the examiner (during a period when he was leas defensive), his associations became briefly mildly loose. His usual preoccupa- tions center around certain guilt feelings, a yawing for his dead mother, and (more recently) the desire for whiskey. Although obviously depressed, he denies suicidal preoccupation. He does tend to ruminate about any teasing fram women,but there is no evidence of any kind of paranoid ideation. The content of his day -dreams and masturbatory fantasies are described in the anamnesis (see previous section). The impression that his gaze was somehow holding the odd light in place in the sky is the only evidence suggesting that he has ever felt he had any special powers. Prior to seeing that light, he apparently never experienced a deja vu, or any illusory or definite hallucinatory phenomenon (see anamnesis regarding hearing dead mother's voice). Rituals, obsessional thoughts per se are denied, except for his recent, uncontrollable preoccupation at night with his dead mother. He ack- nowledges a definite fear of flying (to the point that he has never set foot in an airplane) and is also afraid of heights. Orientation: Subject is fully oriented as to time, person, and place. Previous amnesia and disorientation (place and time, only) have occurred onlyacutely following heavy drinking bouts. patellectual Status: Attention is consistently well -sustained. Memory (in which there has been no known change in recent years) is generally above average. There was no inconsistent historical data which would indicate hisremote memory, or intermediate memory, or recent memory as being confabulation or perseveration. His 24 -hour recall is without disparities after severalrecountings, and immediate recall is normal (he can repeat 6 digits forward and 5 digits backward). Two hours after presentation, he could remember allfour teat objects (a pencil, key, blotter, and the color yellow). Simplecalculations (multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction) were doneaccurately, serial 7's (from 100-0) were done somewhat slowly but without any error*. General comprehension is at least average; he was able to repeat the"cowboy story" with only four minor mistakes. His proverb interpretation (with six proverbs) done very hesitantly but were adequately abstracted. Judgement: There is no gross impairment in this area (as evidenced by responses to hypothetical questions) but the interview suggests a mild limitation, partic- ularly in relation to social situations. Insight: The subject is not peychologically minded and seems to be both unable and disinclined to understand the sources of his current anxiety, insomnia, and general despair. He did communicate a considerable amount of useful psychiatric data but, in the process of so doing, seemed very unaware of how much he wassaying about himself and his feelings.
Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.