Imagery and Fantasy in Vietnam Veteran Psychiatric Inpatients

Abstract

Aspects of volitional and spontaneous imagery /fantasy are examined in hospitalized psychiatric patients with and without combat experience in Vietnam. The ability to create deliberate auditory imagery was unaffected by the combat experience; spontaneous imagery/fantasy in waking and sleeping were profoundly affected. Combat veterans were characterized by greater visual imagery and guilt in their daydreams, greater impairment in attention/concentration, and greater sleep disturbance than noncombat veterans. Results support the clinical conceptualization of post-traumatic stress syndrome as well as the notion of individual fantasy styles.Over several years a literature describing clinical problems encountered by veterans of the Vietnam conflict has developed [1-10]. The concept of "post-traumatic stress syndrome" has been articulated and eventually incorporated into psychiatric nosology [11]. Relevant diagnostic criteria include problems of attention/concentration, guilt, recurrent and intrusive memories of the traumatic event, recurrent dreams of the event, and other sleep disturbance. These issues may all be viewed from the perspective of fantasy function, Le., traumatic experience and subsequent aggressor or survivor guilt appear to foster a fantasy life which is vivid and intrusive in both waking " This study was supported by the Veterans Administration Research and Development Program. 15

Our dreams, our selves: automatic analysis of dream reports

“…Our third hypothesis is then: a war veteran’s dreams are characterized by negative emotions and aggression. This hypothesis was found to be true among Vietnam veterans: they were found to frequently experience dreams associated with guilt and violence [ 49 ]. …”