Examined trauma-related emotional-experience patterns and their association with post-traumatic symptoms (PTS) and somatic symptoms among 153 male Palestinian political ex-prisoners aged 19-51 yrs. A multilevel questionnaire developed to depict cognitive appraisals, meta-evaluation, emotional action readiness and subjective feeling states was completed by all Ss, except one, in the their homes. Cluster analysis revealed 4 major emotional patterns: 2 of them, "Integrative" and "Low intensity" were adaptive, and "Ruminating alexithymic" and "Depressive enactant" were maladaptive, when their role in moderating between trauma and PTS was the criterion. The "Depressive enacting" men showed generally more somatic symptoms, but the "Ruminating alexithymic" men were the most vulnerable when exposed to a high level of traumThe underlying mechanisms differentiating maladaptive emotional patterns from adaptive ones were the predominance of behavioral urges to act, the intensity of negative feelings and a low level of meta-evaluation.