Fear Dream Interpretation and Meanings

Understanding Fear in Dreams: Significance and Interpretation

Fear is a common theme in dreams and is the essence of what are called nightmares. Its significance may partly depend on what, in the dream, is the object of your fear, but this will nearly always represent something within you - for example, some repressed emotion or instinctive drive.

Fear as an Encounter with the Unconscious

What is frightening in a dream may represent your encounter with the unconscious in general, to the extent that it is still unexplored. According to Jung, the unconscious compensates for the conscious mind and therefore contains qualities opposed to those of the conscious mind. You may well be frightened by it. However, those opposite qualities are there to round out your personality as you go through life, until you achieve wholeness. Overcome your fear and get acquainted with what your unconscious contains. The unconscious may be represented in dreams by anything deep and/or dark (e.g., cellar, well, sea, black sky) or by a mother figure or sibling.

Repressed Feelings and Instincts

The frightening thing may represent some particular content of the unconscious, usually something you have repressed - guilt feelings, fears of punishment, sexuality, anger, etc. Sexuality and anger are sometimes represented in dreams by wild animals.

Authority Figures and Fear

A father figure or other authority figure may feature in a dream that expresses fear or guilt. This is because self-condemnation and anxiety often derive from childhood fears of father’s real or imagined disapproval, prohibitions, or expectations. According to Freud, all other fears of punishment get their energy from the fear of castration, which, for a male child, forms part of the Oedipus complex. In a dream, castration may be represented by the cutting off of any part of the body.

Fear of Mother

Fear of mother may appear in dreams, where mother as an object of fear may be represented by a spider, water, crocodile, or dragon. Are you in danger of being overwhelmed by your mother or your attachment to her?

Fear of Losing Love

Fear of castration does not appear in women, but its place is taken by fear of losing mother’s love. For both sexes, mother is the first object of love, so any fear of loss of love in later life (e.g., that of a spouse) may evoke that earliest fear associated with mother.

Repressed Anima or Animus

Something representing a man’s anima or a woman’s animus may be the frightening thing in the dream. This suggests that you have repressed or neglected your anima/animus, probably because you find it difficult to acknowledge that the human psyche is bisexual. The woman’s unconscious has strong male characteristics (centering on reason, competitiveness, etc.), and the man’s has strong female characteristics (centering on feeling, relatedness, etc.).

If you are a woman with a tendency to be bossy or argumentative, you have not brought your animus into consciousness, which is why it sometimes erupts. If you are a man given to emotional outbursts, you need to give your anima a proper place in your conscious life. Then it will cease to behave in an embarrassing way and will instead complement your masculinity in creative cooperation.

Fear and Evil

Does the frightening thing seem evil? If so, it probably represents some part of you that is destroying or threatens to destroy your inner peace or outward efficiency. Nearly everything in your unconscious has two aspects: a threatening or disgusting aspect when it is shut away and neglected, and a positive, creative aspect when it is acknowledged and given an appropriate place in your conscious life.

Anxiety Dreams as Wish-Fulfillment

According to Freud, anxiety dreams are invariably disguised wish-fulfillments. For example, a dream in which you are anxious about a person’s health may reveal an unconscious resentment or hatred of the person. Take this possibility seriously, as repressed negative emotions are very common.

Fear of Falling

Fear of falling is a common dream theme.

Premature End to Dreams

Does the fear felt in the dream bring it to a premature end? See the advice given under Falling, section (2).

See Also: Anxiety, Escape, Flight(= Fleeing).

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Understanding Fear in Nightmares and Symbolic Dreams

In the majority of cases, dreams that make you feel scared, terrified, anxious, or afraid in some way are described as nightmares. However, some dreams can express your waking fears or anxieties in symbolic and thought-provoking ways. In some cases, they may show you how to confront or face your fears.

Nightmares and Self-Punishment

Dreams in which you are falling, drowning, being chased, crushed, or captured may occur when you have done something of which you feel ashamed or that you know is wrong; your dream is a form of self-punishment. Other dream researchers believe that such dreams are caused by the suppression of forbidden or hidden instincts.

Discussing such dreams with others may help ease your fears.

Representation of Fear in Dreams

Any dream in which you are attacked or pursued is also a representation of fear. You should try to identify who or what is attacking or chasing you. Facing your dream demons may help you understand and resolve them in waking life.

Dreams in which you are attacked or threatened by animals send a clear message that you have suppressed your instincts too much and need to be more natural or loosen up in waking life.

Intruders in Dreams

Dreams in which an intruder breaks into your house are extremely common and they also express a fear or concern about a specific person or situation in your waking life. Try to identify the intruder, as this will give you a clue to the interpretation.

Paranoia and Irrational Fears

If you experience paranoia in your dream, or have an irrational fear of going mad or insane, this will reflect an uncertain situation in your waking life.

See Also: Falling, Animals, Intruder, Paranoia.

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(Dismay, Fright, Terror) In a dream, fear means the opposite. In fact, fear in a dream represents peacefulness and repentance in wakefulness.

If one sees himselfscared and running away from fear in a dream, it means that he will win the upper hand.

If one sees himself in a dream waiting to battle with fear, it means that he will join a war.

If one sees himself afraid, and if a voice says to him “Do not be afraid, you will not die, nor will you be able to bear this life,” it means that he may become blind. Ifone sees himself as a God-fearing person in a dream, it means that his worldly fears will dissipate and he will develop true devotion and constant remembrance of his Lord.

The person or object causing fear in the dream represents harm and aversion.

To feel scared in a dream means happiness in wakefulness. Fear in a dream also could mean evil, corruption or sufferingfrom the consequences ofwrongdoingone has committed. Ifone dies offear in his dream, it means that he does not pay people their rights and particularly ifhe is afraid of a human being or from his own evildoing.

(See Also: Running away, Take a flight)

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Fear in dreams reflects a latent state of anxiety. Insecurity, fears, and concerns are taking a worrying toll on you. First, to interpret such dreams properly, you must analyze the events of recent days, without ruling out the possibility that you recently watched a horror movie or read a scary story that has affected you unconsciously, and filtered into your dreams. Often these grisly scenes resurrect dark parts of your past, repressed in the unconscious. The purpose of these dreams is to remind you what you are afraid of. They are the ideal opportunity to discover and resolve what frightens you. To be afraid in a dream reveals, according to the Freudian school, an intense guilty

complex. (See Also: ABYSS, ACCIDENT, DEMON)

Popular superstition about this dream is very similar to the opinions of modern psychology.

If in dreams you conquer that which you fear, the same will happen with the things that scare you in real life.

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We are confronted with many different fears in dreams, but they always refer to obstacles that are a mirror of our everyday—often unconscious—fears and insecurities. Nightmares often have physical causes; we have eaten too much, smoked too much, drunk too much alcohol. Often it is fear of illness (hypochondria), that needs to be overcome.

It is important to determine what made you become frightened.

Usually, this is about literal fear, or about undoing a mistake. On the other hand, such a dream might also suggest letting go of unnecessary fears. Fear can escalate into nightmares, showing the way to personal development. Fear is also connected to being too narrow, and is usually a sign that the dreamer is in search of a more broad, liberated alternative to his or her present lifestyle.

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The meaning of this dream can vary greatly according to the details, action, and circumstances of the dreamer; therefore all those factors should be carefully considered and correlated.

As a general guide if you conquered the cause of your dreamed fear and/or the sensation disappeared during the dream, the forecast is that you will overcome your difficulties; however, if the’ feeling persisted and/or the cause was indefinable, you should expect to have to cope with problems arising from the deceit or dishonesty of someone you trusted.

To dream of calming the fears of others indicates the clearing up of a misunderstanding and/or removal of a threat to your peace of mind.

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If you are experiencing great fear in your dreams, you are having nightmares. These types of dreams are positive because your unconscious mind is trying to tell you something.

If you have repressed issues, they may be coming to the surface. Think about the fear in your dreams and try to be honest with yourself. Face your fears and as a great American president once said “There is nothing to fear, but fear itself.” Having fearful dreams seems to be relatively common. Most dreams are unpleasant and that is the nature of our private unconscious. Issues and concerns, repressed emotions, and daily stress all contribute to an uneasy sleep and to fear filled dreams.

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This symbol needs to be considered in view of the dreamer’s situation at the time.

If your life circumstances are calm and pleasant at the moment, dreaming that you are afraid of something is a warning of trouble ahead. Other symbols in the dream, and circumstances in your life, can explain to you exactly what the trouble will be and how to resolve it.

If you’re presently involved in some tense situations and you dream of being afraid, people whom you consider to be friends may turn out to be less than that.

To dream of calming someone else’s fears implies the resolving of misunderstandings.

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Dreams of fear are numerous. They actually indicates fear of something that is worrying the dreamer. Sexual violence is not excluded because it represents a major fear to many women. These dreams require careful analysis since there are so many variants.

The stimuli for such dreams may come from reading, from watching crime pictures, from a culmination of events and circumstances, or from something very personal to the dreamer.

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Fear is a common dream emotion. Often we repress our fears during the day through being busy, but at night those deeper anxieties will surface in your dreams.

• Sometimes fear dreams can be in relation to post traumatic stress following a major trauma.

If you have a fear dream reflect on what you’re scared of facing in your life and find ways of getting help to face your fears and work through them.

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This dream has many interpretations, as, naturally, it varies so greatly in the circumstances. Fear can be felt and shown in so many forms. Roughly speaking, it should be treated as an obstacle dream.

If you overcome your Fears, or get over your trouble, then all will go well. But if the Fear persists, and you cannot trace the cause, then expect treachery or deceit on the part of someone you trust.

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Dreams of fear are venting dreams. Your dreams are a safe place to explore and release your deepest fears that reside in the darkest shadows of your subconscious. When your fears are faced and embraced, they can then be erased and replaced with positive energy that supports your well being. Remember, the acronym for fear is false evidence appearing real.

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