He recently published a history of apocalyptic visions and compared them with the dreams of his patients who were suffering from schizophrenia, borderline personality disorders, manics, and depressives. Apocalyptic visions share many common elements. This struggle is perceived as the last days of the world as we know it. Often there is some foreshadowing of catastrophic earth changes and upheavals. Apocalyptic visions are revelations, usually given by an omniscient source, to serve as a warning and show the eventual outcome of the human condition.
Any potential redemption is offered by some messianic figure, angels, or demons.
Finally, there is the promise of a prolonged or eternal peaceful time where those who have struggled will be rewarded. Out of death and destruction comes some form of rebirth, the phoenix rising up out of the ashes. Dr. Ostow describes correlations with these patterns to several apocalyptic-type dreams of his patients. These dreams might be an attempt to regulate the disturbances within the psyche. A patient might be aware of an internal struggle, whose feelings surface through a dream showing the patient's psyche struggling with a sense of doom and destruction, followed by a scenario for recovery, yet oftentimes finishing by giving up, being swallowed by the catastrophic forces.