Prison experiences and coping styles among Palestinian men.

Our aim was to describe different types of prison experience and to analyze their relations with background and psychological variables. Seventy-nine male Palestinian ex-prisoners were interviewed about their prison experiences, ways of coping, personality, and psychological well-being. The results of qualitative analysis revealed 7 different types of prison experience. Only one of these reflected exclusively negative feelings, characterized by suffering and disillusionment. The others also included relatively rewarding perceptions characterized as a struggle between strength and weakness, heroic fulfillment, developmental tasks, a normative stage in a man's life, growth in personal insight, and return to religion. Results showed that older men, town residents, and those exposed to a high level of torture perceived the imprisonment more as suffering and disillusionment than other men. Ex-prisoners, who perceived their experience as suffering and disillusionment, typically coped by using wish well thinking...