(2026) Science and education, 1, 37-48. Odessa.
Serhiy Krutko,
Master's Student in Specialty 053 Psychology,
Limited Liability Company "Kyiv Institute of Modern Psychology and Psychotherapy",
34, Lesi Ukrainky Blvd., Kyiv, Ukraine,
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1822-1465
Kateryna Miliutina,
Doctor of Psychological Sciences,
Professor at the Department of Psychology,
Academy of Labour, Social Relations and Tourism,
3-A, Kiltseva Road, Kyiv, Ukraine,
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0013-2989
SYMBOLIC PATTERNS OF DREAMS AS AN INDICATOR OF COLLECTIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN WAR CONDITIONS
SUMMARY:
The study focuses on analyzing the deep mechanisms of psychological adaptation of civilians in war conditions through the prism of dreams. The empirical base of the study consisted of 32 respondents and 499 symbolic units. The methodological design of the research is based on a combination of psychodiagnostics (Eysenck, MISS-M-SF) and a comprehensive examination of oneiric narratives using Structural Dream Analysis (SDA) and the Innate Mappings system. Statistical methods, specifically correlation and regression analyses, were applied for data processing. The empirical findings demonstrated high psychological resilience. It was established that despite the chronic stress of war, dreams have not undergone disintegration: they continue to perform the function of structuring traumatic experiences. High resilience is confirmed quantitatively: the mean index of structural dream integration (SDA) was 4.51, indicating the preservation of Ego agency even in nightmare scenarios. The scientific novelty is revealed through the description of specific phenomena, particularly the "paradox of control": manifestations of personal rigidity (specifically, fixation on the immutability of one's own flaws) have a critical relationship with the experience of helplessness and a deficit of Ego agency in dreams (rs = .794). A compensatory mechanism of affect regulation was also identified: excessive conscious control (rigidity) provokes a "breakthrough" of emotional tension through water imagery (rs = .499). A close relationship was recorded between moral injury and anxiety, as well as a shift of existential anxiety from the immediate topic of war to the uncertainty of the future. Separately, a specific localization of the vitality resource was noted – it is primarily associated with images of water and nature. A combination of qualitative and regression analyses revealed that the psyche encodes war not as chaos, but as an object of cognitive mapping. This suggests that within the studied group, war is encoded in the unconscious as a complex orientation task rather than as a factor of psychotic disintegration. The evolution of the Home archetype was established: under war conditions, it transformed from a static location of safety into a dynamic image reflecting active internal adaptation processes rather than passive protection. The results indicate the limited effectiveness of simple physical confrontation in dream plots. Instead, the strategy of semantic integration was determined to be significantly more successful, while resilience is significantly associated with the presence of conscious life meanings (rs = .523).
KEYWORDS:
dreams, psychological adaptation, Structural Dream Analysis (SDA), resilience, moral injury, archetypes, Innate Mappings
FULL TEXT:
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