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Conflict Nightmares and Trauma in Aceh

  • Special Section: Trauma and Dreams
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Abstract

In both the Acehnese and Indonesian languages, there is no single lexical term for “nightmare.” And yet findings from a large field research project in Aceh that examined post traumatic experience during Aceh’s nearly 30-year rebellion against the Indonesian state and current mental distress revealed a rich variety of dream narratives that connect directly and indirectly to respondents’ past traumatic experiences. The results reported below suggest that even in a society that has a very different cultural ideology about dreams, where “nightmares” as such are not considered dreams but rather the work of mischievous spirits called jin, they are still a significant part of the trauma process. We argue that it is productive to distinguish between terrifying and repetitive dreams that recreate the traumatic moment and the more ordinary varieties of dreams that Acehnese reported to their interviewers. Nightmares that refer back to conflict events do not appear as an elaborated feature of trauma as the condition is understood by people in Aceh, but when asked further about their dreams, respondents who reported symptoms suggestive of PTSD were more likely to report PTSD-like dreams, memory intrusions that repeat the political violence of the past.

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Notes

  1. Singular first-person pronouns (“I” and “me”) reference the first author; plural first-person pronouns (“we” and “us”) reference the collective authorship.

  2. GAM has since demobilized its troops and transformed into a political organization. On 10 December 2006, Aceh was the first province in Indonesia ever to hold direct elections for a provincial governor and district-level regents. Aceh will also be the first Indonesian province to form local political parties, but meanwhile it was mostly the independent candidates with a history of leadership in GAM who swept the elections in December 2006.

  3. The term “inorganic” troops refers to military or police forces temporarily imported to Aceh from other parts of Indonesia. Inorganic forces sent to Aceh followed orders from central command authorities based in Jakarta, thus outranking the local “organic” troops, which followed orders from regional command structures based in the province. Organic troops were subject to as much scrutiny as civilian populations for their potential involvement in rebel GAM activity.

  4. Byron Good and Mary-Jo Good were principal investigators of the project from the Harvard side. Jesse Grayman worked for IOM as the research coordinator, leading the on-the-ground investigation and data collection. Mary-Jo Good and Matthew Lakoma were responsible for the quantitative data analysis for the major reports from the study, while Jesse Grayman was responsible for the qualitative data analysis. Byron Good, Mary-Jo Good, and Jesse Grayman were responsible for publication of two reports on the larger project: Good et al. (2006), referred to as PNA1; and Good et al. (2007), referred to as PNA2.

  5. Villages were randomly selected from high-conflict subdistricts in the following districts, organized chronologically by the three phases of fieldwork:

    February 2006::

    Pidie, Bireuen, and Aceh Utara

    July 2006::

    Aceh Timur, Aceh Tamiang, Aceh Tenggara, Gayo Lues, Aceh Tengah, Bener Meriah, Aceh Barat, Nagan Raya, Aceh Barat Daya, Aceh Selatan

    November 2006::

    Aceh Besar.

  6. Detailed reports on the findings and analyses, and full discussion of the differences between PNA1 and PNA2 findings, are provided in the PNA reports (Good et al. 2006, 2007).

  7. A notable exception to this is when people overhear an individual talking nonsense while sleeping. Called igauan in Indonesian, or wen-wen (sometimes won-won) in Acehnese, individuals never know that they were talking in their sleep unless those who overhear it tell them the next day. The dreamer who talks in his or her sleep does not remember it, but his or her friends or family who overhear will tell the dreamer about it the following day, often in a teasing manner. Wen-wen are caused by distracting spirits (jin) and are said to occur when someone goes to sleep with unfinished business from the previous day.

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Correspondence to Jesse Hession Grayman.

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Grayman, J.H., Good, MJ.D. & Good, B.J. Conflict Nightmares and Trauma in Aceh. Cult Med Psychiatry 33, 290–312 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-009-9132-8

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