Investigated different types of prison experience and analyzed their relations with background and psychological variables. 79 male Palestinian ex-prisoners (mean age 25.4 yrs) 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 1 of these reflected exclusively negative feelings, characterized by suffering and disillusionment. The others 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 wishful thinking, avoidance, escape, and distraction. Torture and ill-treatment increased wishful thinking and self-controlling as coping styles.