The Rough Road: A Single Case Study of Dreamtelling in a Group during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Military Conflict

Sharing dreams is a common practice, and several motives, such as emotional processing, emotional relief, and request for containment, have been identified. An exploratory single case study research design was used to explore the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic and local military conflict among a group of Israeli students. The group discussed a dream previously shared in social network sites during the first COVID-19 lockdown. A qualitative content analysis of the meeting transcript yielded three meaningful and coherent themes: feeling blocked and helpless in front of a barrier; a sense of intrusion, defense, and psychological coping; belonging to the group as a means of coping with an individual and a collective threat. Each of these themes reflected personal, interpersonal, and social aspects of the participants' experiences. The results deepen the understanding of people's dominant experiences and main psychological coping mechanisms during a collective stressful event. Further, they support the positive effect of the dreamtelling approach on individuals' coping experiences and on enhancing hope by sharing and discussing dreams with others.