Working with dreams as a factor in reducing anxiety levels

The subject of the study is the dreams as manifestations of the psychological activity of the individual in the context of psychological psychotherapy. The object of the study is the participants—individuals—who, with the help of a psychologist, work with the material of their dreams to reduce their anxiety levels. The hypothesis of the study is that working with dream material within the framework of an author's synthetic concept of dreams is effective, which is manifested in the reduction of both situational and personal anxiety of the individual whose dreams are being worked with. The relevance of the study is determined, on one hand, by the growing interest in the subject of dreams from both scientific and practical psychological-psychotherapeutic perspectives and, on the other hand, by the lack of data confirmed through mathematical analysis regarding the effectiveness of working with dream material. The research utilized, among other methods, the case study method, the testing method (the Spielberg-Hanin anxiety test), and the self-observation method (introspection). The results of the study allow for statistically significant conclusions about the psychological-psychotherapeutic effectiveness of working with dream material using the algorithm proposed within the framework of the author's synthetic concept of dreams. Meanwhile, using mathematical statistical methods, the data previously presented in the works of authors such as V.V. Kozlov, V.V. Maikov, S.A. Parfentiev, and others are confirmed, yet had not been substantiated from the standpoint of academic science before. The novelty of the presented research lies in such substantiation, which may pique the interest of both theoretical scientists and practitioners in the field of psychology. As evidenced by the data obtained by the researchers, differences on the "Situational Anxiety" scale are significant at the Wilcoxon test level of significance p.