The Element Encyclopedia of 20,000 Dreams: The Ultimate A–Z to Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams. Theresa Cheung
whose authority were you up against? To whom is it that you feel you need to assert your individuality and independence? On the other hand, your unconscious may have simply allowed you to give vent to feelings of resentment in the safety of the dream world. If you dreamed that you refuse to comply with your boss, or with someone who gives you directions in waking life, this may reflect your mounting anger or exhaustion in the face of demands and responsibilities being placed upon you.
If you felt liberated in your dream, perhaps this is a sign that you need to stand up for yourself more in waking life. If you were involved in a mutiny, do you long to rebel against authority? If you went on strike, such a dream may reflect feelings of frustration and exhaustion in waking life. If you found yourself engaged in arm wrestling, are you engaged in a real-life battle of wills? An alternative explanation for dreams of rebellion against an enemy, known or unknown is that you are in revolt against some part of yourself. Try to remember what you rebelled against in your dream and why, and see if you can draw a parallel in waking life.
DROWNING/CRAWLING/FALLING
Drowning in deep water suggests floundering in the depths of the unconscious. As with dreams of pursuit or being chased, this dream alerts you to areas of your unconscious that are creating conflict and need to be examined with care. Falling and jumping in an attempt to escape from hostile pursuers in a dream is a desperate escape mechanism and suggests that you might have more success if you turn at the last minute to face your enemies, having found the strength to confront them. Dreams in which you are trying to run from something or someone but find you cannot—perhaps because your feet are weighed down or stuck in the mud—can be interpreted in much the same way.
Crawling through a narrow space, tunnel or small enclosure, or trying to squeeze through a tiny corridor or hall points to your creative energies struggling to find expression; these are, however, also common-place dreams expressing anxiety about a challenging and imminent event such as a review at work, an examination or even the birth of a new baby. Being chased, not knowing who or what is out there in the darkness, or vainly trying to push through the crowds in a busy bar, street or department store also suggest that certain repressed aspects of your personality, or unexamined aspects of the self, demand to be dealt with. To be trapped in a dream signifies that you feel you are trapped by outside circumstances. To be aware of trapping something or someone is to try to hold onto them, and if you trap a butterfly or animal, you are trying to capture your inner self. Feeling trapped in dreams also suggests an inability to break free from old patterns of thought and behavior without outside help. See also NEGATIVE EMOTIONS.
FIGHTING
If you are fighting an unknown enemy in your dream, this may represent a struggle with the shadow side of your nature and the unwelcome aspects of your personality. For example, there might be a battle between your moral code and your sexual desire, or between your intellect and your emotional needs. Conflict can also occur between your personal drives and social, political and economic drives. The fight may also represent a battle between yourself and another person, and your conscious and unconscious needs. If the enemy is someone you know, perhaps you have unsuspected feelings of animosity towards them. A fight between a younger and an older person in your dream may suggest a rivalry between the dreamer and authority.
A fight between people of the same age may represent the struggle for recognition or sibling rivalry. Similar interpretations can be applied to any kind of struggle in your dream. Such fights usually depict a fight for freedom, independence or the truth. Your unconscious may also be urging you to work out why there is a conflict, and may be suggesting that there is a more subtle way of dealing with it than with fists. According to Freudians, the struggle depicts the battle between your father or mother for the attention of the other parent.
Forbidden desires
Desires that are forbidden in waking life can be repressed by our unconscious, and when this happens, a conflict ensues between the conscious mind and the unconscious drives that are striving for expression. According to Freud and other dream analysts, we can use our dreams to safely explore this conflict and allow forbidden desires a mode of expression. For example, you may have a dream in which your sister falls ill if you have had an argument with her in waking life; if you are attracted to someone who is married, you may have a dream about having an affair with them.
Dreams can also express the conflict between what you ought to do and what you want to do so; for example, you may have a dream where you tell your boss exactly what you think of them. Other conflicts can center on thinking versus feeling, or rationalization versus intuition, and your dreams can be used to develop and resolve this conflict (see ARCHETYPES). For example, if you are a scientist you may have a dream that you fall passionately in love with a stranger. Your unconscious is urging you to develop the intuitive, impulsive, unexplored and underdeveloped aspect of your nature.
KILLING
If you dream about killing a person, an animal or see people or animals being killed, this does not mean you have latent violent tendencies. Instead it can mean the death of thoughts and actions that have been restricting your personal growth. A deliberate act of murder might suggest hostility, with the identity of the victim and murderer assisting with the interpretation. Killing an authority figure typically suggests a desire to escape social or personal constraints. Killing a parent points to unresolved childhood conflicts, perhaps deep-seated resentments that have not been expressed. If the parent was of the opposite sex, Freudians might consider it as evidence of the Oedipus complex. A dream of poison—either poisoning someone or being poisoned yourself—may refer to some underhand action we are taking or which is being taken against us. Look for clues in the dream. Who or what is being poisoned? Is someone you know in waking life poisoning your attitude unbeknownst to you? What is the color of the poison? Are you poisoning yourself in some way?
VIOLENCE
If you have a dream where the conflict contains gruesome, explicit images of violence, try to relate these to your waking life. If you can’t think of any waking parallels, consider the identity of your opponent in the dream? Is this someone you recognize or is it a hidden part of yourself? Was your opponent serious or light-hearted? Was anyone hurt in the dream? Was the conflict resolved and how so? Any violence in dreams is a reflection of your own inner feelings about yourself and sometimes about the situation around you. Seeing yourself as a victim of self-imposed violence suggests self-blame, perhaps related to the end of a relationship or the death of a loved one, both of which you may feel could have been avoidable had you had acted differently. Dream violence towards yourself may also express low self-esteem, self-loathing and destructive urges that should be dealt with before they erupt into waking life.
If, on the other hand, you are lashing out at others in your dream, this may reflect your struggle to fight the undesirable impulses within yourself. Violence towards an old person can indicate resentment against authority. Violence towards a child may indicate the dreamer’s inability to accept and express the child within themselves. If you dreamed that you were attacked or threatened with attack, it may be a warning of an attack in waking life. This may not be a physical attack but an attack on your integrity or character.
WAR
People who