Attachment in detachment: The positive role of caregivers in POWs’ dissociative hallucinations

Abstract

Humans are social creatures and therefore exhibit a pervasive need for others. Hence, when benevolent human contact is scarce, this dearth may be compensated imaginatively. War captivity is an extreme example of such deprivation and one wherein dissociative hallucinations have been exhibited. Although hallucinations may serve to virtually summon benevolent others and thus provide the prisoner of war (POW) with a platform for compensation, the contents of such hallucinations have yet to be investigated. The current qualitative study is the first to examine whether the content of such hallucinations may harbor positive effects. Guided by the notion that people search for compensation in lack of companionship, we scrutinized testimonies of former POWs for accounts of hallucinatory experiences. A narrative analysis was utilized in an attempt to understand the meaning of the hallucinations for the POW. Findings reveal that benevolent figures and concomitant acts of care are exhibited in war captivity hallucinatory experiences. Thus, it is argued that the content of such hallucinations may be protective. These findings are discussed in light of the literature concerning peritraumatic dissociative experiences. In addition, attachment theory is suggested as a plausible framework for understanding these findings. Finally, limitations of the study are discussed, and future researched is suggested.

Trauma and resilience: From trench to bench.

“…This enigmatic phenomenon is the result of an ambivalent attachment that occurs when “the hand that feeds is the hand that beats”; that is, when pain, pleasure, and gratitude are simultaneously conditioned (Boss, 2006; Stein, Cromton, Ohry, & Solomon, 2016). I became increasingly aware of this sense of gratitude and responsibility and the possible development of a mental response known as “identification with the aggressor”; but the former clear-cut split between the good (us) and bad (them) has become forever blurred in my mind.…”