These clinicians believe that dissociation is a likely explanation for a memory that was forgotten and later recalled. Dissociation means that a memory is not actually lost, but is for some time unavailable for retrieval. That is, it's in memory storage, but cannot for some period of time actually be recalled. Some clinicians believe that alien abduction is especially conducive to negative disturbances of memory such as dissociation or delayed memory. Many clinicians who work with alien abductees believe that this dissociation is a person's way of sheltering himself or herself from the pain of the memory.
Many researchers argue, however, that there is little or no empirical support for such a theory.
Indisputably, some clinicians, such as John Mack, M.D., believe that people are being abducted by aliens and suffering from the aftereffects of this trauma. This highlights the core problem in the mental health industry today. The scientific method has been abandoned. There is not even a consensus on how to distinguish truth from falsehood, and as a result, there is no agreement on what is true and what is false. Nor is the situation improving.