Posttraumatic symptoms, including nightmares, are more prevalent in World War II survivors than in the general population, but how war experiences have affected subsequent dream content in specific survivor populations remains less explored. In the present study, we used self-reports collected in 1973 from Polish Auschwitz survivors (N = 150; 45 women) to investigate the prevalence of posttraumatic symptoms, classified according to the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Furthermore, we classified main themes, central emotions, and threatening events in the dreams (N = 632) of the survivors, comparing dreams recalled from before, during, and after the war. Of the respondents, 12.7% described experiencing all diagnostic criteria for PTSD. War-related themes were less common in dreams dreamt before than during the war but were most common after the war. Themes related to family and freedom were most likely to appear in dreams dreamt during than before or after the war. The most often occurring emotion was fear, and dreams from after the war were likely to contain more negative and less positive emotions than dreams dreamt during the war. The likelihoods of reporting threatening events and threats involving aggression were higher in dreams dreamt during than before the war and in dreams dreamt after than during the war. In conclusion, PTSD symptoms were common in Polish Auschwitz survivors 30 years after World War II, and the themes, emotions, and threatening events in their dreams seem to reflect lifelong posttraumatic dreaming. We interpret the results as lending support for the threat simulation theory of dreaming.

This study is based on the testimonies submitted by former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners to Polish psychiatrists in 1973. The respondents gave accounts of the daily camp custom of dream interpretation. The method of dream explanation in the camp was not sophisticated. It was a simple way of understanding dreams as future-oriented signs of the dreamer's fate. However, the custom of interpreting dreams in Auschwitz can be described as a complex and multilevel ritual that had at least 3 dimensions: individual, interpersonal, and social. On the individual level, this ritual was oriented on revealing the inmates' future. A prisoner, listening to a dream reader, could receive a good or bad prophecy, and this uncertainty was the core of the process. The interpersonal dimension of this ritual was connected with the inmates' need to capture others' attention. On the social level, dream sharing was a community-building activity. On each of these levels, finding the meaning of a dream was not as important as being engaged in closer relationships with other inmates. This article is an attempt to characterize the Auschwitz ritual of dream interpretation in light of various branches of cultural and dream studies as well as Randall Collins's theory of interaction ritual chains.

This article explores the dream descriptions submitted in 1973–1974 by former Polish prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp in response to a questionnaire sent out by Polish psychiatrists. These descriptions are being investigated as testimonies that represent the Auschwitz inmates’ experiences commonly regarded as “unspeakable.” Not only the dream experience itself, but also the respondents’ attitudes toward and beliefs about dreams are taken into consideration in an attempt to understand the impact of the Holocaust on the survivors. Their general inability of comprehending the Auschwitz and post‐Auschwitz dreams seems to be the most important and significant aspect of their testimonies. The experience of dreams as completely strange and astonishing phenomena is being explained in this article in connection with the respondents’ ability and inability to recover from their Holocaust trauma.

This study, based on the testimonies submitted by former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners to Polish psychiatrists in 1973, is focused on examining the most traumatic dreams of the former inmates-the dreams about the camp, dreamt in the postwar period. These dreams were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. For quantitative analyses, Hall and Van de Castle's (1966) coding system was applied. The main goal of this study was to test the hypothesis-based mainly on Hartmann's (2001aHartmann's ( , 2001bHartmann's ( , 2011 theory-that even such terrifying nightmares can have adaptive and healing potential. This hypothesis has been confirmed: The dreams about the camp have therapeutic potential, as they weave in new material into the dreamers' traumatic memories, and especially the so-called "comeback dreams" (those in which the dreamers are aware that they come back to the camp for at least the second time) seem to have adaptive effects, mainly because of their near-lucid character. Therefore, Kaminer's (1991, 2001; suggestion that repressive mechanisms serve best the process of coping with Holocaust trauma has been called into question.

The aim of this research was to test Ernest Hartmann's hypothesis that dreams have quasitherapeutic potential. I have examined 100 elderly people from nursing homes in Poland using both quantitative (Hall/Van de Castle coding system) and qualitative analyses. The results show clearly that their dreams differ from the Hall and Van de Castle norms, especially with respect to a considerably more frequent appearance of familiar and friendly characters (usually close family members) and positive emotions. This fact, contrasting with the feeling of loneliness and failure declared by most residents, suggests that their dreams perform the simplest possible therapeutic function: The dreams do not enable the dreamer to adjust to his or her new life situation, but, by denying the present situation, they "bring" the dreamer back to his or her happy past. A definite majority of the dreams entailed meetings with those close to them (alive or not) and most often described memories of real events. It is interesting that these memories are not nostalgic or unhappy for the dreamers; on the contrary, they make them more comfortable and happier in their present situation. It seems that to successfully accept a situation of exclusion (being put into a nursing home) depends on the effectiveness with which one is able to transfer one's interest from the present and the future to the past and that dreams can be truly helpful in this.Keywords: dreams of older adults, dreams of nursing home residents, therapeutic effects of dreams, dream contentThe reason for undertaking this research was to see what older adults in nursing homes dream about and whether their dreams have a therapeutic effect: if they can contribute to the improvement of the residents' mood. One needs to remember that in Poland, as in the majority of other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, staying in a nursing home usually involves a traumatic experience of isolation and rejection by the family. In Polish, nursing homes are commonly, if derisively, called "old people's houses" and are perceived as "places to die in."