Ian Wallace, a British psychologist, summed up the most common dreams as being chased, losing his teeth, unable to find a toilet, streaking in public places and taking exams.
Freud told us, "Dreams are the fulfillment of wishes." So what does this dream mean? Teacher Yan analyzed three common dreams, hoping to enlighten you. "Repeated nightmares, what does it mean?
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Anxious dreams: the test of dreams
Many people will report that exams often appear in their dreams. Every time there are some sources of anxiety in my life, the dream about the college entrance examination will not come, just close my eyes and wait for me quietly in the world.
A typical college entrance examination dream is like this:
College entrance examination dream 1
The physics exam was rolled up, but from the beginning I found that I could hardly do it. I thought, how is that possible? Physics is obviously the best subject I have ever studied. Time went by little by little, and I made little progress in this paper. The paper is about to be handed in. I really hope the paper in my hand is a blank sheet of paper. ...
Dreams like this are basically awakened at the end when they are nervous and overwhelmed. After waking up, I wiped my head with sweat, glad it was just a dream.
The dream of college entrance examination is always associated with anxious things in real life, especially to complete a not so simple task before the deadline. These tasks cause nervous physical feelings and emotions, worries about the results and future, and doubts about self-ability. And what can these symbols of negative emotions and feelings be besides the college entrance examination?
After all, we have all experienced three years of gray and June black (black July before 2003). In those three years, we went out in the morning glow and went home in the stars. In those three years, we were immersed in a mountain of books on the table, eager to improve our grades through repeated practice. Watching the college entrance examination calendar turn over day by day, we are getting more and more nervous, questioning our abilities and worrying about our future.
Therefore, although the dream of college entrance examination seems to express our anxiety in real life, we are often worried about our own self-ability under the anxious mood.
"The subject I used to be good at is no longer good at in my dream" and "The time is running out but the topic has not been finished", which means that the dreamer doubts his ability.
College entrance examination dream 2
I dreamed that the college entrance examination was coming, and I lost my admission ticket/missed the bus. In my dream, I tried my best to take the exam in the examination room. By the time I got to the examination room, the college entrance examination was over.
The hidden emotions in these college entrance examination dreams are somewhat different from the aforementioned dream of "I can't finish the questions or I won't do them". The anxiety above expresses doubts about one's own ability, while the anxiety of "losing the admission ticket or missing the bus" expresses worries about the external environment, worrying that one is in a helpless state in the big environment, being manipulated by fate, and feeling that one cannot resist bad luck and some unexpected situations.
Explain with the psychological concept of attribution, that is, some people's anxiety comes from the "lack of ability" of internal attribution, while others' anxiety comes from the "bad luck" of external attribution.
The problem is that some people always feel incompetent and some people always feel unlucky. Worst of all, some people combine these two points and feel that they are not only unlucky, but also incompetent.
But in fact, our anxiety is often supported by cognitive bias. Whether it is "lack of ability" or "bad luck", it is not necessarily an objective fact.
For a simple example, some people always feel that the bus they are waiting for will never come, or they will see the bus leave when they arrive at the bus stop, so they are very angry and feel that "God is playing with themselves".
However, some people, whether they study all the way to get a Ph.D. or work all the way from white-collar workers to middle and upper levels, still feel that they are "incompetent and inferior to others", which adds a lot of troubles for no reason. These are typical cognitive biases.
Only by understanding our anxiety and ourselves can we have the opportunity to correct these cognitive biases that bring painful feelings. And dreams are a good window to know yourself.
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Recurrent nightmare: tooth loss dream
Tooth loss is not a common dream situation, but many people will have such dreams at some point in their lives. If you search on Baidu, many people will be surprised by the answer of "Duke Zhou".
Duke Zhou said that "parents' teeth are fierce", which means that these dreams indicate that their parents will have a great disaster or die soon.
But in my psychological counseling practice, I have never heard of anyone whose parents really suffered a disaster after dreaming of losing their teeth. Although we can't completely deny the existence of prophetic dreams, the proportion of prophetic dreams is actually very small, and we don't need to scare ourselves for the almost impossible proportion.
On the contrary, tooth loss has many more common symbolic meanings. Specifically, in everyone's dream, it depends on what kind of mood the dreamer is in the dream and under what circumstances the tooth loss occurs. It is best to explore such a dream under the guidance of a professional psychoanalyst, and you will understand what this dream means to you.
Tooth loss dream 1
I dreamed that my tooth fell out/my tiger tooth fell out. I was very surprised in my dream, but I was not afraid.
Usually, this kind of dream suggests that the dreamer has some conflicts when expressing anger. Maybe they are angry with some people and things in their lives, but they feel that they should not be angry. Teeth, especially tiger teeth, can be used as tools for animals to attack. If you lose your teeth, you lose the tools to attack.
Dreams are the satisfaction of subconscious desires, so in such dreams, the dreamer loses the tools of attack, and he can no longer face the conflict that he wants to be angry but dare not. As the dream metaphor tells us, because he lost his fangs, he can't bite his opponent any more.
Tooth loss dream 2
I dreamed that I lost some or all my teeth, but there was no blood. I carefully touched the place where I lost my tooth, and new teeth grew back.
In this dream, teeth are no longer a symbol of aggression, but a symbol of new life, because babies will grow new teeth from no teeth, and children will grow new teeth when they grow up to childhood. New teeth, that is, new buds, symbolize some good changes in the dreamer's life, just like rebirth, which will bring more energy and vitality to the dreamer. Such dreams are not uncommon in the process of psychological counseling. Many visitors will dream of "getting rid of the old body and regaining a new life" in the process of psychological counseling.
Tooth loss dream 3
I dreamed that my teeth were gone, and I felt very embarrassed in my dream. I felt that others were watching me.
Although the third dream of tooth loss is also tooth loss, the dreamer's mood in the dream is mainly condensed in the embarrassment after suddenly falling off Koga.
This dream is more meaningful. Generally speaking, people who have such dreams have strong social anxiety. They are very concerned about other people's comments and are very afraid of making a fool of themselves in front of others. However, the more they are afraid of what will happen, the more embarrassed they tend to feel in social situations in life and even in dreams. The sudden loss of teeth symbolizes unpredictable embarrassment and loss of support and affirmation from others.
So does this dream still satisfy the subconscious desire? Is the subconscious desire that embarrassing? Of course, this dream still satisfies a wish that making a fool of yourself is not because of its own reasons, but because of uncontrollable factors, which frees the dreamer from self-criticism.
The meaning of teeth is not limited to the common situations I listed above. In addition to these meanings, everyone may develop different symbolic meanings of teeth in their subconscious, which requires dreamers and psychoanalysts to explore meaningful parts for dreamers in those absurd dreams.
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Dreaming of lost relatives
Dreaming of relatives is a very common thing, and no one takes it seriously, but dreaming of dead relatives will make people wake up a little uncomfortable. Some people wonder: What is this? Are you giving me a dream? Or will something bad happen to me?
These puzzles and fears are easy to understand. After all, we humans always have more or less anxiety, fear and escape from death. When the emotions related to death bypass the conscious review and enter the dream, the anxiety we have been hiding will surface. So what does it mean to dream of a dead relative?
Dreaming of lost relatives
I stood in the room, in total darkness. I heard someone knocking at the door downstairs, and I knew it was my grandfather. In my dream, I knew he was dead, but I was not afraid because he came back. I walked down a long dark staircase and saw him standing outside the iron gate. I was in a hurry to open the door, but I couldn't. I'm afraid he will disappear soon, and I'll never see him again.
The dreamer has a good relationship with grandpa, but for some reason he didn't attend grandpa's funeral.
"Dreams are the realization of wishes", even nightmares have some ingredients to satisfy wishes. Then, when the deceased returns to dreams, what kind of emotions do these dreams express in our hearts? What kind of wishes are we fulfilling? The answer is obvious.
Death forces us to be separated from our loved ones, and how many people can say that such separation has no regrets? After the death of a loved one, it is particularly easy for people to dream about him on birthdays or anniversaries, because both birthdays and anniversaries are a stimulus to our consciousness or subconscious, reminding us of TA and those complexes and memories related to TA.
To some extent, these dreams help us to reproduce the scene of the deceased when he was alive, and give us a chance to remedy the unfulfilled wishes or regrets in our dreams. Our subconscious mind is always loyal to remedy our regrets, just like in the movie "Once Home", it has crossed into our unresolved things countless times, giving us a chance to make up. Time and again, until we can really solve those regrets.
I still use my dream examples to illustrate how dreams can remedy our wishes and regrets. The dreamer's regret is that he didn't attend Grandpa Cheng's funeral. For her, grandpa is one of her favorite people, and she has always felt guilty for not attending grandpa's funeral.
In her dream, the darkness and the descending stairs both symbolize the place where Grandpa is-the underworld. She didn't see her grandfather for the last time, so her subconscious helped her create such a dream. Seeing her grandfather was the realization of her wish.
However, on the other hand, the fear of death is also reflected in this dream. For example, when she finally walked down a long dark flight of stairs, she still couldn't open the door. The symbol of that door is the separation of yin and yang. In this dream I made up, the girl didn't completely solve her regrets. She met her grandfather, but still through the door, so her inner guilt will still accompany her.
However, having this dream gave her a chance to realize her guilt and solve it in real life. I can imagine that if she is my visitor, when she tells me this story, I will suggest her to do some rituals to save her heart that is always trapped in guilt.
Ritual is a powerful tool. We can write a letter to the deceased, pour out all our feelings on paper, and then burn the letter in a sacred ceremony in front of other respected relatives and friends.
After that, in a very quiet and sacred state, we wrote a reply to ourselves in the tone of the deceased. This kind of communication will help us solve our inner regrets and guilt, and perhaps other complicated emotions.
Text | Yan Leiyu
Source | WeChat WeChat official account: 525 psychological network (ID: psy525 _ CN) A nutritious psychological network!