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7-(%$2&!1#'!$X[&/.*)&! The study aims to combine the investigation of the content of the dreams, the dream work process and trauma. So far we were able to gather abundance of data (including narratives of dreams) from two groups of subjects, and we were able to provide some evidence that their dreaming process differs in respect to several dimensions (symbolization, affect regulation, attachment to others etc.). With a better understanding of the influence of trauma on dream work we hope to further develop psychoanalytic understanding of dreams and the clinical work with dreams. In this moment we have an access to the first group of subjects, i.e. individuals who were exposed to severe war-related stressors (torture, imprisonment, severe combat, injury, etc.), and to assess their psychological and physiological state seven or eight years after the initial assessment. In that sense we will be able to have a longitudinal perspective of their psychological status (development of posttraumatic sequela, possible changes in the clinical picture), social variables that could have impact on the outcome of the disorder, and more importantly, we will have a chance to analyze elements of their dream processes (indirectly via dream narratives) and to compare them with the results of analyses almost one decade before. It is reasonable to assume that we will have dispersion of possible outcomes of the posttraumatic processes (from the resolution to the chronic form) and that these differences would be recognizable at the level of dream structures. This research started as a sub-component of the research project entitled “Psychobiology of PTSD” (PPTSD), that is approved and financed by European Commission (Contract number: FP6-509213) and has been implemented through international cooperation of research centers in Serbia, Croatia, Holland, Italy and England. PPTSD Project’s general objective is to better understand the biological basis of psychophysical profiles of PTSD patients. The study is focused on establishing multiple correlations of different PTSD subtypes with relevant psychological, biochemical, endocrinological, genetic, physiological and anthropometric parameter. Our subjects were 25 men, exposed to various war related stressors (combat, imprisonment, torture), with the current diagnosis of PTSD and with the specific characteristic – frequent nightmares related to war experiences (established criteria was at least two nightmares during the two week period prior to psychological assessment). Objectives of our study were to: 1) perform polysomnographic identification of two parasomnic events - nightmares and night terrors in subjects and to 2) record narratives of dreams during the night and upon awakening, and to record narratives on recurrent war-related dreams that will subsequently be submitted to psychoanalytical analyses. Second part of the research was entitled „Posttraumatic dreams and symbolisation“ and was supported by the IPA Research Advisory Board. The main purpose of that second part was to investigate referential group of men, who were exposed to war-related stressors but who did not have PTSD at the time of assessment. They were selected to match the experimental group according to age, education and level of exposure to war-related stressors. With both groups, procedure of collecting the narratives in the morning was similar: in the early morning subject was interviewed by one of two of Serbian colleagues, both psychoanalytic researchers, and interviews were recorded, transcribed, and translated into English. Material has been analyzed by two different methods: Psychoanalytical Enunciation Analysis (PEA) and by a method introduced by Moser & v. Zeppelin. Both methods and their utilization for the analysis of traumatic
dream narratives have been presented in conferences and papers published so far. Currently two research groups are in the process of evaluating the dream reports.
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