Stephan Hau Professor

Current research projects

I am involved in a number of research projects. Some of these have their own sites in the Research catalogue (see separate header below), some are described here, and one or two is only available on the Swedish version of this page.

• Playrooms – Animation and mentalization in puppetry
• Dreams, art and functional disability – DreamArt
• Posttraumatic Dreams and Symbolisation
• Posttraumatic Dreams and Symbolisation: A follow-up study
• Training better clinical psychologists: new methods based on machine learning, AI, and deliberate practice

Playrooms – Animation and mentalization in puppetry

Stephan Hau, Department of Psychology, SU
Helena Nilsson, Marionetteatern, Kulturhuset/Stadsteatern
Sofia Wärngård Lang, Marionetteatern, Kulturhuset/Stadsteatern

Ongoing

Start: May 2022

End: May 2024

External funding: Black-box funds, Stockholm University

Background: Puppetry has long traditions in many different countries, e.g., in Japan, Italy, and Germany. In Sweden there has been a continuous work in Stockholm by the Marionetteater at Kulturhuset where different forms of puppetry are actively further developed and applied. In Sweden, unfortunately, there has been a lack of theoretical conceptualizations and research as well as of descriptions on how puppetry is actually “working”. This lack of recorded and stored conceptual knowledge is specifically noticeable when it comes to sustaining teaching and learning processes within the field, when students want to acquire knowledge on how to perform puppetry. In contrast to theater plays where the actors themselves act on stage the situation in puppetry is more complex: the puppets acting on stage have to become alive through artists performing them. In all the different forms of puppetry an artist is working as a “mediator” in order to arise emotions, feelings and affective states that can be perceived and understood by the public observing the puppet and the play.

The study: The main focus of the study is the systematic scientific accompaniment of a specific theater performance from its planning and developmental stage until its performance in front of an audience. During spring 2022 a new production of Marionetteatern is under planning: “The pet show” (planned premiere 10/2022).

Research questions: What is necessary for animation? Which factors can be described that makers of puppets regard as relevant in the development of a puppet? Which relations can be described between the artist, manipulating a puppet and how do these “relations” change? What experiences have the artists during the performances? Which processes can be described before, during and after the play? Which preparational steps are necessary before the play? Where is the “Ego” of the artist while being on stage?

Research method: Semi-structured interviews with a) puppet makers and b) with artists manipulating puppets. The interviews will be qualitatively analyzed in order to systematize the knowledge communicated.

Results: The results of thematic analyses will be compiled to a syllabus which can be used for educational purposes.

Substudy 2: The production and processing of emotions

Research questions: During the preparation work: With what knowledge can director, dramaturge and playwright contribute when a framework is created for the production? How are emotions, personality traits, motivations, mental processes of the puppet transported to the public? Which techniques are applied in order to visualize or communicate inner processes, mental states? Which position has the artist on stage (e.g., is it a dyadic relation [artist-puppet] or a triadic relation [artist-puppet-public])?

Research method: Semi-structured interviews with artists manipulating puppets and with directors of puppetry. The interviews will be qualitatively analyzed in order to systematize the knowledge communicated.

Results: The results of thematic analyses will be compiled to a syllabus which may be used for educational purposes on different levels (e.g., university students of theater studies, but also participants in workshops on puppetry).

The study combines different research methods: qualitative research methods (semi-structured interviews) are combined with action research (when following the development, production and performance of a specific stage play of puppetry). 

Dissemination: The results will be presented in a workshop at the end of the project (spring 2024) organized by Marionetteatern, Kulturhuset Stockholm, and by the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University. (2) The results will even be published in scientific journals.

Dreams, art and functional disability – DreamArt

Stephan Hau, Department of Psychology
Helén Knutes Nyqvist, Department of Special Education
Marie-Louise Stjerna, Department of Special Education

Ongoing
Start: January 2021
End: December 2023
External funding: Stockholm University

For more information, see the Swedish version of this page.

Posttraumatic Dreams and Symbolisation

Stephan Hau, Psykologiska institutionen
Vladimir Jovic, University of Priština (Kosovska Mitrovica)
Sverre Varvin, Oslo Metropolitan University
Bent Rosenbaum, University of Copenhagen

Ongoing
Start: Jan 2014
End: December 2023
External funding: IPA

The study aims to combine the investigation of the content of the dreams, the dream work process and trauma. With a better understanding of the influence of trauma on dream work we hope to further develop psychoanalytic understanding of dreams and the clinical work with dreams.

In the frame of a larger study on psychological and physiological parameters of PTSD (financed by the EU during 2005–2008) a group of 25 war veterans with PTSD related to traumatic war experiences during the last Balkan war were investigated in the sleep laboratory. They were selected from the larger group (N=100) as they all reported having repetitive war-related dreams at least twice per week.

More than 70 spontaneous dream reports were collected under laboratory conditions. The standardized interviews – performed by psychoanalysts in Belgrade – were tape recorded, transcribed and translated into English. The manifest dream narratives were evaluated with two sophisticated evaluation methods in order to describe symbolizing activity and relational interactions in the dreams. At the same time, psychoanalysts from Belgrade will compare these results with psychological measures such as: clinical symptomatology, personality structure, stressful life events (prior to war and war-related), pre-war adjustment, and cognitive and neuropsychological parameters.

Posttraumatic Dreams and Symbolisation: A follow-up study

The study aims to combine the investigation of the content of the dreams, the dream work process and trauma. So far we were able to gather abundance of data (including narratives of dreams) from two groups of subjects, and we were able to provide some evidence that their dreaming process differs in respect to several dimensions (symbolization, affect regulation, attachment to others etc.). With a better understanding of the influence of trauma on dream work we hope to further develop psychoanalytic understanding of dreams and the clinical work with dreams.
In this moment we have access to the first group of subjects, i.e. individuals who were exposed to severe war-related stressors (torture, imprisonment, severe combat injury, etc.), and to assess their psychological and physiological state seven or eight years after the initial assessment. In that sense we will be able to have a longitudinal perspective of their psychological status (development of posttraumatic sequela, possible changes in the clinical picture), social variables that could have impact on the outcome of the disorder, and more importantly, we will have a chance to analyze elements of their dream processes (indirectly via dream narratives) and to compare them with the results of analyses almost one decade before. It is reasonable to assume that we will have dispersion of possible outcomes of the posttraumatic processes (from the resolution to the chronic form) and that these differences would be recognizable at the level of dream structures.

This research started as a sub-component of the research project entitled “Psychobiology of PTSD” (PPTSD), that is approved and financed by European Commission (Contract number: FP6-509213) and has been implemented through international cooperation of research centers in Serbia, Croatia, Holland, Italy and England. PPTSD Project’s general objective is to better understand the biological basis of psychophysical profiles of PTSD patients. The study is focused on establishing multiple correlations of different PTSD subtypes with relevant psychological, biochemical, endocrinological, genetic, physiological and anthropometric parameter. Our subjects were 25 men, exposed to various war related stressors (combat, imprisonment, torture), with the current diagnosis of PTSD and with the specific characteristic – frequent nightmares related to war experiences (established criteria was at least two nightmares during the two week period prior to psychological assessment).

Objectives of our study were to: 1) perform polysomnographic identification of two parasomnic events – nightmares and night terrors in subjects and 2) to record narratives of dreams during the night and upon awakening, and to record narratives on recurrent war-related dreams that will subsequently be submitted to psychoanalytical analyses.

Second part of the research was entitled "Posttraumatic dreams and symbolisation" and was supported by the IPA Research Advisory Board. The main purpose of that second part was to investigate referential group of men, who were exposed to war-related stressors but who did not have PTSD at the time of assessment. They were selected to match the experimental group according to age, education and level of exposure to war-related stressors.

With both groups, procedure of collecting the narratives in the morning was similar: in the early morning subject was interviewed by one of two of Serbian colleagues, both psychoanalytic researchers, and interviews were recorded, transcribed, and translated into English. Material has been analyzed by two different methods: Psychoanalytical Enunciation Analysis (PEA) and by a method introduced by Moser & v. Zeppelin. Both methods and their utilization for the analysis of traumatic dream narratives have been presented in conferences and papers published so far.

Currently two research groups are in the process of evaluating the dream reports.

We used two different methods for qualitative analysis of narratives of dreams that are related to two different theoretical backgrounds and have relatively strict rules for application which limit possible subjective interpretations. Both methods have earlier been applied for analyzing different clinical phenomena (e.g. psychosis, suicide, depression). They proved to be useful for the systematic evaluation of traumatic dreams as well as for evaluating processing of memories and affects with intrusive re-experiencing and reactive avoidance – observable in dream narratives – phenomena that can be understood as the core of the clinical dynamics of the posttraumatic stress disorder.

"Replica dreams"

Most of our subjects did report dreams and all those dreams were at some extent related to traumatic (war-related) experiences. This was the case for subjects from the experimental group (individuals with current PTSD at the time of assessment) as well as for the referential group (healthy individuals who were exposed to war-related stressors). But one of important results was that in all narratives (except one, which could be understood as an artifact) traumatic material was transformed by the dream work. This speaks against the view of traumatic dreams as "pure replicas" of the past presenting un-integrated memories and brings us closer to the understanding of traumatic dreams as complex processes which more or less successfully aim at integrating traumatic experience into the mind’s normal communicative and problem-solving way of working.

Positive and negative outcome. One of the aims of our research was to explore the differences in the structure of dreaming of two groups (subjects with and without current PTSD). We are in the process of finalizing analysis of all dreams collected during the research. By April 2023 we will be able to report the summary of main differences and probably will be able to describe main trends, qualitatively and quantitatively. Currently, we were able to demonstrate that the referential group dream specimen is characterized by higher level of symbolic and relational quality than the dream specimen of the experimental group, and that they differ in security regulation, capacity to solve problems, and involvement with others (good feelings, positive relations).

Affect regulation and involvement with others. By looking at the dreams of the traumatized subjects in light of the results of the Moser method, disturbances of affect-regulation become apparent. Those disturbances reflect the dreamer’s inability to get involved with others in the dream scenario because of anxieties, especially annihilation anxiety, evoked by such involvement. The Moser dream coding method reveals that, the security principle overrules the involvement principle in these dreams. This finding could be further elaborated to help us understand one of the basic features of PTSD – detachment from others, as a defensive strategy to avoid overwhelming affects.

Training better clinical psychologists: new methods based on machine learning, AI, and deliberate practice

Stephan Hau, Department of Psychology, SU
Hanne Strømme, University of Oslo

Start: January 2024
End: December 2027
External funding: Norwegian Research Council

Read more (in Norwegian)