Nightmares, PTSD, and the War on Terror
Chapter 2 of the book of my book, American Dreamers: What Dreams Tell Us about the Political Psychology of Conservatives, Liberals, and Everyone Else, is devoted to the impact of the “war on terror” (including the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq) on dreaming.
Three of the focus group members had a direct personal connection to the Iraq war: Dan, who was fighting in it; Sophia, his wife; and Lola, whose nephew had just joined the Army and been deployed to Iraq. Here are three of their dreams, discussed at more length in chapters 2 and 6.
Dan:“I am an observer or advisor to a small military outpost. We get attacked by an air assault, planes dropped tons of soldiers all over our camp. It was men and women in our camp. I was with a small number of soldiers who escaped, we were walking through the swamp, doing good, when another group of escaping soldiers ran right into us—bringing the enemy on top of us. We all ran, and I found an empty refrigerator to hide in. I remember pulling some seal off the door so it wouldn’t seal on me. I shut the door and waited. The enemy found me, the guy was mad at me for some reason—I wouldn’t tell him something or I lied—anyway he wanted to cut off my finger. He asked if I was part of A11 (my company) and I said no. I noticed a soldier from our camp who was now an advisor or emissary for the enemy. He stood up for me and saved my finger, and my life.”
Sophia:“Long and horrible….Dreamt Dan was married to both my sister B and myself. He was taking me to his place of work where we ended up going on a mission. This work place was under the guise of a normal office with lots of employees, doing normal work—but he was actually a spy or undercover operative doing dangerous missions, but like a contract worker. At one point I end up with him in a new helicopter vehicle that we have to jump out of. He has tons of hi-tech vehicles and equipment and acts ambivalent through the whole dream. I know that B is expecting him to come home later to take her out but the employees cook a huge feast and everyone sits to eat—but I am not invited to sit and I get extremely upset. It escalates through the dream. I plead and cry to him to take me home but he won’t. The dream revolves around me wanting to go home but can’t.”
Lola:“A guy I work (B) with and his wife (V) and I are trying to cross a bridge. We are on a flat cart with no sides sort of like a carpet ride. The three of us are zooming very fast on a path. We go up a big hill of water, down and up and over. We come to a bridge that is being built. There are men everywhere with weapons. We try to reason with them to let us cross. They take V away. B and I are locked up in an open cage overlooking the construction of the bridge. The men are ogling V. B is getting crazy. I tell him to keep his cool, that is the only way we are going to escape. I look out and see a woman in the distance. She is winking at me and motions for me to look down. I see a way to escape…We find V and the woman in the distance winks at us to go. We are back on the cart again on a wild ride. Up and over we go…We see a big crowd ahead. It is a stadium and President Bush is there speaking. We glide right up to him and tell him he must pull the troops out of Iraq, because we have our own war going on right here. We tell him about the men at the bridges that we just escaped. He tells us not to worry; he will take care of it.”
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is closely associated with experiences of war and terrorism. Recurrent nightmares are one of PTSD’s most common symptoms. For more on the cause and treatment of PTSD, see the following:
Haunted by Combat: Understanding PTSD in War Veterans, Stanley Krippner
The Spiritual Side of Traumatic Stress Normalization, J. Michael Hakanson
Trauma and Dreams, Deirdre Barrett
Dreams of Healing: Transforming Nightmares into Visions of Hope, Kelly Bulkeley
