Nick Tipsword

4/12/17

CRWR II

Professor Zorn

Summary

In the film, The Fourth Kind, we see a woman dealing with alien abductions affecting her

life after her husband is murdered in Nome, Alaska. This woman is Dr. Abigail Tyler. Dr.

Tyler is a psychologist that uses hypnosis to uncover forgotten memories from her patients who

have all been suffering from the same dream. With the use of hypnosis she reveals that two of

these patients have memories of strange creatures trying to enter their home. During this time she

discovered that aliens might have also abducted her after her assistant gives her a tape that

contains her speaking accompanied by a strange voice speaking in another language, which she

does not recognize. After contacting an ancient language specialist Dr. Tyler finds out that the

ancient language on the tape is Sumerian. Days later a flying object is seen over Dr. Tyler’s

house and her daughter disappears. In an attempt to contact these extraterrestrials and retrieve

her daughter Dr. Tyler undergoes hypnosis and we see scenes from her abduction. During this

hypnosis session Abigail Tyler breaks her neck and is paralyzed, she never sees her daughter

again.

Analysis

I believe that while this movie is a fictional film is very effective in illustrating how

individuals deal with traumatic events. These connections with extraterrestrials did not begin

occurring until after Dr. Tyler lost her husband. It is highly possibly that in this time of stress
she created these paranormal events. The patients of hers that experienced these abductions

could have been easily affected by her projecting her stress onto them. If they were coming to a

psychologist they were likely already under great amounts of stress. With the added stress from

Dr. Tyler they could have also created these memories in their heads. On the taped recording of

the ancient Sumerian the speech was hardly audible. If Dr. Tyler was listening for speech she is

likely to hear what she is expecting to hear rather than what was actually on the tapes, which was

just indistinct static. When people are put under large amounts of stress and are put in situations

where they expect to see proof of extraterrestrial life it is more likely that they will interpret

random things into what appears to be proof of the paranormal. This can easily explain the

occurrences of Nome, Alaska.

Critique

It is easy to understand that people have trouble handling traumatic events in their lives.

When dealing with pain and the loss of a loved one it is easy to search for any explanation for the

events occurring in your life. With this in mind this movie is a great example of why so many

individuals experience paranormal events. It is unlikely that aliens abducted Dr. Tyler and her

patients, but that they were going through very hard times in their lives and were searching for

explanations for their problems. The mind manufactures memories when we need something to

help us get through pain.