The stuff that nightmares are made of: Israeli dreams in times of the Israel-Hamas war
Shani Pitcho
Death Studies May 6, 2024 DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2024.2348054 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 242 |
| Population | Israelis during the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack and the ensuing war |
| Duration | Two-month dream collection period |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | The authors suggest that exposure to the October 7 attack and the resulting strong mortality salience were reflected in participants' dream content, indicating that the anxiety-buffering roles of cultural worldviews, self-esteem, and close personal relationships were compromised. They propose that examining collective dream content offers a glimpse into subtle psychic processes during national trauma. |
Abstract
Abstract This qualitative study explored the mortality salience effect as it manifested in the dreams of Israelis in the aftermath of the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023, and during the ensuing war. Over a two-month period, a sample of 242 dreams was collected via an online survey. Two forms of thematic analysis, namely, inductive and deductive, were utilized. Viewed through the theoretical lens of terror management theory, the findings suggest that exposure to the attack’s horrors and the resulting strong mortality salience were reflected in the participants’ dream contents. This indicates that the anxiety-buffering roles of the three psychological coping mechanisms—cultural worldviews, self-esteem, and close personal relationships—have been compromised. The examination of collective dream content offers a glimpse into subtle human psychic processes and how they might be affected during times of national trauma that necessitate robust psychological mechanisms to cope with the heightened mortality salience.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Other as a Nightmare: The Israeli-Arab Encounter as Reflected in Children's Dreams in Israel and the West Bank Jewish and Arab fifth to seventh graders living in various settings in Israel and the... | 1989 | Qualitative content analysis | n = 212 |
| Nonwaking Responses to Waking Stressors: Dreams and Nightmares1 Men from the cohort eligible for military duty during the Vietnam Conflict, varying in... | 1990 | Survey interview study | n = 442 |
| Communing with the Gods: The Dreaming Brain in Cross-cultural Perspective | 2011 | Phenomenological study | |
| Partial memory reinstatement while (lucid) dreaming to change the dream environment. Lucid dreamers | 2020 | Qualitative study | |
| Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic Global survey participants | 2022 | Longitudinal mixed-methods study | n = 2,240 |