Dream Symbols

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Dream Interpretation at Freud and Jung

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Symbols in Dreams

This is a list of symbols that mostly occur in dreams. The approach is from the psychoanalytic view (Freudian as well as Jungian). More symbols will be added soon, so please keep in touch with our news by registering with our newsletter.

Also don't forget that the art of dream interpretation at Freud and Jung differ from the popular one. So the symbols should be interpreted differently too. You may need to learn more about both methods by following our email courses.

Some Dream Symbols and their Interpretation

Friend - A friend isn't always a friend in a dream. It all depends on the associations of the dreamer. The friend from the dream can be an allusion to a real one - from the wakeful state - or it can embody certain characteristics of the dreamer, which he/she does not take into account because they are unconscious.

Pregnant - It can mean important, significant in the public life. A dream in which you seem to be pregnant can be thus a symbol of the wish to get a better social position, to become an important person. For a woman who had many pregnancies it can suggest trouble. For a woman who had just had her first intercourse can suggest the end of virginity and all that virginity implies: freedom, autonomy, self-eroticism and so forth.

Cars - There is a very interesting article about cars and machinery symbolism at http://www.freudfile.org/psychoanalysis/paperstore.html. Generally speaking, it may refer to certain social conventions which require focus and a certain technique assimilated through practice. The car can also suggest the human body which is regarded by the ego as mechanical (if we exclude the soul).

Mask - It is something that hides or deceives. It may be the persona in the psychology of Jung. A mask is always a double - it hides what the dreamer refuses to see in his/her real life about himself/herself.

Demons - Demons are in connection with our cultural representations. Usually opposed to the divine will, they threaten the virtuous persons (subject to religious prescriptions) or they tempt. But a demon can also be somebody who doesn't worship anything - a diabolic person meaning that he/she respects no social convention.

Water - The symbolism of water is extremely complex. It suggests the amniotic life, the fetal period. In this respect it can suggest the returning to the past, to childhood, to infantilism. The water washes but also cleans (erases=destroys!). The water is a habitual element without which life cannot exist. It has alchemical significance - it is the substance which transforms (or the prima materia). The water - the flood - is the tool used by God to clean the degenerated humanity. It can thus suggest the accumulation of destructivity. It is also a symbol of the libido. It is the elementary mother (which includes the physical mother too).

Death - It means never death in a dream. It can evoke something that ceases, it can be, as well, the end and the beginning, an initiating death (such as the Lazarus' in the Bible ). It can suggest the breaking up as in the French saying "Partit c'est mourir un peu" ("Leaving means dying a little"). Learn more about dreams of death here.

Hill - A guide mark or just the need for social climbing. In a dull life suggested by the plane, the hill (the hillock) is an ambitious start, a hope in the making. At Freud it can be a symbol of penis.

Incest - We seldom dream about incest. In fact, dreams do not openly indicate something like this, but they can evoke a very intimate relationship with the mother/father/close relative. In the incest dreams aggressive feelings can also squeeze in.

Roof - Symbol of ambition, of upstartism. To be the first, the best, visible from a great distance (greatness). Or it can suggest a top personality to whom we hope getting closer. Also it can be our need to climb over (to overpass) a major problem.

Ceiling - The upper limit over which we cannot pass in dreams about ambition or moral ones.

Dog - It is said that the dog is the man's best friend. It can also imply the need of defense, security, safety. In can suggest the desire of transforming the other in an obedient, submissive servant.

Ice - The ice is the symbol of stillness, immobility (maybe affectively) because the water - extremely mobile - becomes something petrified, stagnant. It can suggest a formal, distant, feeling-less relationship.

Money - A lot of money means availability, appetite for many things, in one word libido. When you dream you have a lot of money and you feel a strong comfort it means you dispose of the necessary means to satisfy your biological needs (at least in dream).

Train - The train takes you away and it represents a major shift in life. The train can be also the symbol of an unexpected opportunity which must not be lost or even of death (as it is a long way out there).

Teeth - If you dream you have lost your teeth it might mean a regression towards childhood, infantilism. Teeth are connected to aggressiveness too - the loss of teeth might imply a repression of aggressiveness (or even castration as in the psychoanalytic theory). A vital loss which might signal an imminent danger.

Hotel room - A transit place in which you do not stay forever. Life on earth it is said to be a transit and it can be compared to sitting in a hotel room (the body itself may be represented as a hotel room). It can also suggest the unconscious need of the dreamer of not having constant and long lasting relationships with a close friend or mate.

Dancing - When you dance you flirt with somebody. It can also suggest a certain social conformism because dancing always conforms to the music, to the person or group who play the music.

Snow blizzard - Just like the flood, it participates to the water symbolism (see the water symbolism).

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