Oneiric Witnessing: Dreamscapes of War

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Dreams reveal hidden histories and call us to collective witness. They shape how societies remember, respond, and heal in the aftermath of violence.

Summary

This paper explores how sharing dreams during times of war becomes a powerful act of collective testimony. Drawing on dream archives from Ukraine since the 2022 invasion, Zolkos shows how dreams are not only private responses to trauma, but also a way for people to record, process, and publicly bear witness to the realities of conflict. The article draws on cultural dream theorists like Charlotte Beradt and Wilfred Bion, highlighting how dream sharing creates a relational space—inviting others to “dream with” those affected by violence.

By making dreams visible, communities produce a kind of “clandestine knowledge” that can reveal social tensions, emotional truths, and future risks that might otherwise remain hidden. Public dream archives, Zolkos argues, serve as “seismographs” of collective experience, bringing both suffering and resilience into the shared memory of war. Sharing and receiving these dreams is not just an exchange of information—it is a call to empathy, ethical responsibility, and collective meaning-making.

Zolkos, M. (2025). Oneiric Witnessing: Dreamscapes of War. Humanities, 14(2), 29. https://doi.org/10.3390/h14020029