Dreams Shared on Social Networks during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Tower of Babel or Noah’s Ark?—A Group-Analytic Perspective
2023
Shulamit Geller | Gal Van den Brink | Yehoshua Akerman | Sigal Levy | Tuli Shazar | Gil Goldzweig
Dream sharing is a universal practice, and various incentives have been identified, including emotional processing, emotional relief, and demands for containment. Shared dreams can contribute to an individual&rsquo:s understanding of social reality during traumatic and stressful events. The present study examined dreams shared on social network sites (SNS) during the first COVID-19 lockdown, applying a group-analytic approach. A qualitative dream content analysis conducted by a group of researchers analyzed 30 dreams shared on SNS, focusing on their contents, dominant emotions, and unique group processes. The dream content analysis yielded three meaningful and coherent themes: (1) dominant threats: enemy, danger, and COVID-19: (2) emotional fusion: confusion and despair alongside recovery and hope: and (3) group processes characterized by movement between being alone and being together. The results deepen our understanding of both unique social and psychological group processes and of people&rsquo:s main experiences and key psychological coping mechanisms in times of collective trauma and natural disasters. They also demonstrate the transformative potential of dreamtelling for individuals&rsquo: coping experiences and building hope through the creative social relationships formed within SNS groups.
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