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.