Dreams and relevant interpretation I suggest

(Dreams No. 26-to-50)

 

Dream No. 26

I had to attend primary school again and the school I went to was run by nuns. While I was climbing the stairs, nuns came out just to see me and they pointed at me as if I were a peculiar show. Afterwards I sat at my desk thinking that I would write as children do (at least I would have done so there) although I would not loose my old way of writing.
The use of round, elementary characters in writing might result in an improvement of my hand-writing.

Analysis brings us back to the point where our psychic development stopped, that is our childhood. This going back represents the necessary premise to prime a growth and learning process again. This going back to start learning again is matched, at the same time, to an easy to understand feeling of awkwardness and by the awareness that awkwardness will be compensated by an improvement of our personality and a capacity for engraving on life, leaving a mark (writing).  

Dream No. 27

I was in a street and I was feeling happy. Mama had gone off. There was anyway the idea that I was alone, that I could manage it alone. This made me happy. I would put some money in the bank.... I can't remember exactly. I found out that I had only little money nevertheless I felt happy, trustful.

The umbilical cord has been finally cut, the dreamer feels that he can rely on his own resources and that he can manage it even without his mother’s protection and support. Prospects for the future are characterized by trust (I will put some money in the bank) even if resources set aside are scanty yet. There is a cheerfulness arising from feeling self-sufficient, independent.

Dream No. 28

I let the analyst enter into my house overcoming my uneasiness because dirt and disorder are there. At a certain point he goes into my bathroom and finds my WC strongly encrusted. I am ashamed to death.

As already said, the house is the dreamer’s personality. Feelings of uneasiness and shame experienced in showing the analyst the inside of one’s psyche, felt as a place where disorder and dirt reign, are evident and openly admitted. I have already mentioned the symbolic meaning of a bathroom as a metaphor of analysis (Dream No. 9). In this case there is also the WC symbol that can be associated both to the idea of a container/female and a place especially meant to discard dirty things.

This type of dreams helps us to understand the reasons why analysis goes on at such a slow rate as to seem irritating at times.

Dream No. 29

I am in a bathroom and I am cleaning the tiles behind the towels but my broom is dirty so I will have to clean everything up again.

See previous interpretation.

Dream No. 30

Out of the door of my house there are gypsies: a father, a mother and two boys. I notice that, although they are gypsies, they are quite clean and polite. I invite the mother to have breakfast with me at the cafe.

Gypsies often show up in dreams and they represent those parts of ourselves that we feel naughty, dirty, deceitful. At the beginning of analysis, and for a good part thereof, there is such a great distance separating us from these "outside of the law" areas as to lead us to have an attitude of severe judgement without appeal.

As analysis goes on, instead, this distance starts to become increasingly shorter until a direct contact is established, this enables us to discover that these areas of our psyche are not so bad to visit, on the contrary they have positive aspects capable of enriching us. At this stage, as I often say, "peace breaks out", the tremendous amount of energy that was previously spent to build up and keep our defenses against the "bad ones" becomes available for constructive or simply pleasant purposes.

Dream No. 31

I am sitting on the driver’s seat of my car which is running very very fast. I am stiffly scared because I can do nothing as there is no steering wheel in the car and I expect an accident to occurr any moment.

Very strong emotions are coming up and the dreamer feels like she is losing control over them.
At the beginning of analysis it is not a rare experience to be afraid of becoming "tools" of emotions that are gaining an advantage over one’s rational/conscious part. Sometimes this feeling is represented by a fear of going mad.

Dream No. 32

I was on a beach. There were many persons. I was wearing a bathing costume. At a certain point I realized that my sexual organ had an embarrassing length size and had come out of my bathing costume. And it was not in erection! I looked around and people were watching me. I tried to put it back in the costume but I couldn't succeed.

A beach is the border line between sea and mainland therefore it is particularly suited to represent the partition line between unconsciousness (sea) and consciousness (mainland).
It is to be noticed that in his real life the dreamer strongly dislikes beaches therefore, in his dream, it is not a free choice that leads him to that place rather analysis that allows him to discover that he has some problems in tackling his own aggressiveness.

A penis can have several meanings. In this case it seems to symbolize aggressiveness. In current Italian language, in fact, many words are used to signify a penis and are as well associated to the idea of a violent-aggressive action,: "club", " cudgel ", " tup ", " hammer ", "sword, " staff ", " pestle ", etc.

Embarrassment is created by the judgment of the others (the so many watching persons).
This embarrassment is already remarkable for a limited size aggressiveness (penis not in erection). We can imagine, therefore, what a problem managing his own aggressiveness at its maximum size (penis erected) represents for the dreamer.
He makes many attempts to cover-disguise his aggressiveness but uselessly, he doesn't succeed.

Dream No. 33

In my house I discover a very narrow passage. I cross it with some effort and I find myself in a second house inside the first one, that I simply ignored up to that moment.
I cross a corridor and enter into a room where a man keeps watch over a cage set against the wall.
The man says that he was put there to control the BEAST. This has been kept confined into a cage for so many years now and unceasingly tries to come out.
I draw near the cage but, unexpectedly, I see an enormous, repugnant hand with long fingernails and bright red fingers that tries to grab my face.

The man however says: "It is not bad. It all depends on the fact what it is time for it to get out of there. We were waiting for you".
I run away in terror and, together with my family, we build a barricade to defend us from the monster. The beast gets out and comes towards us with a threatening air, as if it wanted to kill us. We divide in two groups leaving a free passage for it. Then the beast passes on without attacking us and goes away fading off.

Underscoring wad added by me to point out the change and passage from a dangerous-terrific status to a harmless-evanescent status.
To defend herself from her impulsive, bad, aggressive, "bestial" part, the dreamer has confined it, has CAGED it in a watertight compartment that she has created and kept in her personality for so many years that she was no longer aware of its being there. Such defensive processes, in fact, occur entirely at unconscious level.

From the end of the dream where the "beast" seems to be willing to kill the her relatives it appears that aggressive impulses are directed towards the members of her family.
Analysis leads the dreamer to get in contact with this removed part of herself and find out that in actual facts wickedness is assumed only, so much it is true that beast-aggressiveness once set free, that is arrived at conscious level, attacks nobody and just FADES OFF!
With few, vivid images this dream summarises entire essays of psychoanalysis....

Dream No. 34

While I am standing next to my car, suddenly the engine starts and my car begins to move. I start running after it to prevent it from causing accidents. In the end, however, after many narrow curves, nothing happens and, rather, I arrive at an open space full of flowers from which a magnificent panorama can be enjoyed.

As in dream No. 31 there is a feeling that very strong emotions are coming up that will get the upper hand and will cause a loss of control.
Here however this fearful feeling changes into the discovery that, on the contrary, nothing serious happens and, moreover, in the end the person is richer with additional broader and wider viewpoints.

Dream No. 35

...... we go down to the second floor to join a party where there is also Queen Elizabeth of England......

The boy that had this dream was grown up in an a family where the dominant character is the mother: the husband of QUEEN Elizabeth, in fact, is only a... .PRINCE!

Dream No. 36

I am taking the liberty of submitting some of my recurrent dreams to your attention. Being recurrent dreams, I would like to know their meaning, if possible.

For many years (I am 22 year old) I have been dreaming of flying and very often I do so by swimming in the air doing the breast-stroke. Sometimes it is a hedgehopping, other times I fly high and I am unable to land again (once I had even become a sort of earth satellite). After more careful consideration, I would say that I feel like being able to control my position only horizontally, not vertically.
I have the clear perception however that it is absolutely normal for me to feel like flying in my dreams.

During the last year (more or less) I have had another dream where I am chewing a gum (which I only rarely do in real life) for a long time and the very moment I want to throw the gum away this becomes endless: my mouth is always full of it, I go on removing it but there is always much more left.

Well, there are also other recurrent dreams but I don't want to bore you too much.
Thank you and my best compliments for your site.

I will thou you in my answer. The various decades separating us offer me a good excuse....  :-)
Both of us are interested in dreams therefore you should not to speak of "boredom". The only risk you run is that you might not always get an interpretation for every dream you will send or every part thereof.
In this case, for example, the second dream (chewing gum) would require your associations to that hobby-pleasure therefore I leave it with no interpretation.

As to the first dream, on the contrary, a lot of things can be said.
First of all, it is a recurrent dream and in this regard I would ask you to refer to what I have already said elsewhere (recurrent dreams).

Flying is "parting from land" and from all that land symbolically represents.

Let’s see.

You can determine which of the above meanings are best suited to your situation. You could also come to the conclusion that no one of them seems satisfactory to you and in any such case we, the psychotherapists, usually have an ace up our sleeve, i.e. answering: "You can't realize it at conscious level but at unconscious level".  :-)
This sentence, however, doesn't represent a dialectical expedient meant to allow us to always get the better of patients. Very often it reflects reality. First try and then trust.

Dream No. 37

Above my head, hanging in the air, there was an enormous vagina, longer than one meter. I was holding a bottle of alcohol in my left hand and a wad of cotton-wool in my right hand and was very busy in cleaning and disinfecting that vagina.

See the following dream for interpretation.

Dream No. 38

I had taken a shower during which I had enojoyed feeling that dirt and weariness were going away. Afterwards I did my physical training and took pleasure in feeling my body perfectly executing the movements I asked it to make. At a certain point I heard a male, deep and warning voice saying: "Be careful, the pleasures of the body start this way…. !!!".

To understand these two dreams it is necessary to know that the dreamer was grown up in a strictly sex-phobic family and for many years attended a school run by nuns where the suggested example to follow was a young girl that broke her teeth with a stone in order "to suffer what Jesus had suffered for us".
One can hardly believe that only 10-20 years ago youngsters were educated in this way, yet the effects of such an education can be easily seen in these two dreams: on one side female sexuality is experienced as being dirty and infected, on the other side the body is experienced as the source of a tempting pleasure that may seem innocent at the beginning but in the end drives to… the eddies of vice and perdition!.

Dream No. 39

Inside a well that belonged to me I discovered a room or something alike. The room had been dug in the upper part of the well, at ground level. Something precious was inside it. I intended to get in and take this precious thing, overcoming the problems originated from an empty space that was under the room. I tried to get in after solving the problem of the risk. I had a positive attitude and I would say that the whole situation was positive, although with some uncertainties.

It is interesting to compare this dream with Dream No. 20 as the same person had both dreams. The difference between the two dreams can be easily noticed.

In both dreams there is a well that is a way connecting the UNDERNEATH (unconsciousness) to the ABOVE (consciousness). Water is drawn from the well as emotions are drawn from the unconscious.
These two interpretations are confirmed by the dreamer’s behaviours in his real life and by his feelings. First he was discouraged and pessimist, now he says "I feel I can manage it". The distance covered is evident.

Dream No. 40

There was a tall man staying together with many short men. I did not want the tall man to look different from the other men, so I forced him to walk on his knees. However, I was not satisfied wih this solution as I realized that I was causing damage to the tall man and, at the same time, I missed my intended purpose. In fact, kneeled legs made this man look anyhow different from the other men, as they were different from naturally shorter legs.

In his real life, this man had given up having a beautiful wife because he was afraid that somebody would try to seduce her. He had given up earning a lot of money for fear of being robbed. He had given up having success for fear of exciting envy in other people.
During a sitting, his attitude to life was summarized in this sentence: "I give up having it straight for fear of having it cut".

He would seem a failure by vocation, hence a predestined person with no way out, but something deep inside himself is not at all satisfied with this style of life as it understands that in practice this choice brings to a paradoxical result: a self-injury (give up using his own endowments) without reaching the sought target (go along unnoticed, be blurred in the multitude).
In other words, such a choice of life - on top of being to his detriment as self-injuring - is ineffective too!

After digesting the message embodied in this dream, the patient told me: "In the last few days I walk more upright and am more plunky in my work".

That’s the golden mine of dreams! Analysis is long and costs a lot but persistence is largely compensated.

Without this dream, nobody would have convinced this man that the way of living he had chosen was causing him serious damages, he would have gone on ignoring his own resources, his endowments, thus condemning himself to being unable of exploiting them.

The persuading capacity of dreams is terrific as it originates from two elements:

These are "common" dreams, dreams that common mortals have, the dreams I came across so far in the persons telling me their dreams.
Are there other kinds of dreams, premonitory, prophetic dreams and so on? To be unbiassed, I can’t exclude it. I can only say that I never came across them so far. In any case, assuming that they exist, it is out of doubt that we are unable to identify them A PRIORI that is before events happen, we become aware that they were such when all is over and at that point…. they are of no use to us!

Dream No. 41

I refuse to open my drawer because I am afraid they might steal what it contains.

It is as a short as a meaningful dream. Lately the dreamer has been asking herself, and is asking me, why she does not fancy having sexual intercourses. The answer is in this dream and it becomes clear when two facts are taken into consideration:

On the contrary, if the idea of OPENING is associated to the idea of being robbed, that is something unpleasant, the result can only be a refusal to open, which means CLOSING hence a loss of desire for sexual intercourses.

It would seem too simple, almost simplistic, yet that’s the way these things get on.....

I specified "common sexual intercourse" as there are women that prefer other forms of sexual satisfaction, different from the most frequent ones. What I stated above does not apply to these women inasmuch as sexual desire persists in them, contrarily to what happens to my patient.

Anyhow, a deeper investigation of the reasons why these women are inclined to other forms of sexual satisfaction than the usual one, would probably reveal the same  – or an analogous –  psychologic framework as found in the woman that had the dream I am talking about. I mean, sometimes a person adopts a certain sexual behaviour due to psychic problems not yet solved, as the following dream shows.

Dream No. 42

I have dreamed that I went across a hole cut in a thorny bush and come out covered with wounds and blood.

This man had undergone a very simple surgical operation to eliminate a prepuce stricture (phimosis) but he still kept deep inside himself his fear for the pains and wounds that a sexual intercourse with a woman might cause to him. As a consequence, he used to haunt transvestites to get a fellatio (no thorny bush).

See also previous dream interpretation.

Dream No. 43

I let the analyst enter into my house overcoming my uneasiness for the disorder and dirt that are there. Then I let him go into my bathroom and he finds my W.C. deeply encrusted. I am ashamed to death.

As already said, a house represents the dreamer’s personality and a bathroom represents the analysis. After clarifying this, the reason why an analysis lasts so long can be easily understood. In fact, it is necessary to overcome one’s natural reluctancy to disclose one’s inner parts, that are felt to be dirty, to other people.

On top of this, this feeling is not experienced at consciousness level but at unconsciousness level. At consciousness level, instead, often there is the belief to be clean, very clean. That’s why nothing can replace the usefulness of dreams: they allow us to cast a glance over corners of our phyche that would otherwise remain unaccessible to our consciousness.
If indeed we want to know what is "deep inside" ourselves, we cannot do without the messages conveyed by dreams.

Dream No. 44

I am inside my house and have a thorough clean up made inside it. I have no labour to do, everything is carried out by specialized firms and their workers. My only job is to place objects inside cartons and write my name on every carton with a felt pen. That’s all I do.
Thorough and deep cleaning, everything organized, everying arranged and no labour for me.

Often in dreams analysis is a CLEAN UP of one’s own house, therefore this dream discloses a wrong expectation from analysis which is regarded as a work carried out by OTHERS not by the very concerned person.
At a closer examination, we can find something else in this dream. It seems that the repeated emphasis on the same idea is meant to draw attention thereto in order to bring to light the need of reviewing and modifying it.

Let’s try and count how many times it is repeated in a just a few lines:

1). I have a thorough CLEAN UP MADE (not I CLEAN)
2). I have no labour to do
3). Everything is carried out by specialized firms
4). My only job is
5). That’s all I do
6). No labour for me

One could say that actually the dream consists only of this very simple concept, repeated in almost an obsessive way.

Why does this happen? I have already given my answer.

I have already had the opportunity of saying that in most cases dreams seem to be a "radiography" of the psyche, that is all they do is taking a photograph of what is inside ourselves.
Sometimes, however, there is the impression, and this is the case, that there is something more than a mere photograph, that is there is an INTENTION, which implies an INTELLIGENCE and a WILL.

And I will stop here as I have clearly stated my intention of avoiding debates on the "Two Chief World Systems".
I will confine myself to notice a fact, the one represented by this dream, and point it out to your attention. Everbody can draw the conclusions he considers more appropriate and satisfactory. If somebody wishes to let me know his conclusions, I will include them in the page "Let’s talk about it" so that they may be made available to the other visitors, too.

Dream No. 45

I plunge into the sea and swim under water until I reach the bottom where I find a methane gas pipe. Gas, however, is not flowing because there is a big cock, as used in an oil refinery, which is shut off. I go and open it.

In modern collective imagination product, methane gas is synonymous with ENERGY. For this reason it is the symbol of ENERGY in general hence PSYCHIC energy, too.
The woman that had this dream comes out of rather a serious depression. To give an idea of how deep her depression was I can add this detail: being repeatedly asked to describe the pictures she had in her house or in her office, she could only visualize them in WHITE and BLACK colors in her recollection. Colors and brightness had disappeared from her life.

Depression can be described in several ways, but no doubt its major characteristic is an absence of VITAL ENERGY, the impetus pushing us to have wishes, make plans, do things.
Such a dream, therefore, marks a turning-point, the coming out of depression that is the moment when energy starts flowing again, as methane gas does in the pipe after opening the cock.
This result does not fall from heaven, it is not a gift, nor it is fortuitous, it is the outcome of a desired, aimed at and precise action.
It is to be noticed that the scene is performed on the BOTTOM of the SEA, that is deep in THE UNCONSCIOUS.
This guarantees that the change will not be temporary and superficial but sound and lasting as it springs out from a deep root.

Dream No. 46

I am walking on a side-walk, during a night. The street is dark as street-lamps are off. I am very cold and am feeling alone, sad, depressed.
At a certain point a band of boys arrives, they are very cheerful and are joking each another. They stay at a bus stop waiting for the bus to arrive. I too start awaiting the bus, but I do not join them, I stay by myself. When the bus arrives, they get on it before I do. Passing by the obliterator, one by one, they extract the ticket card and insert it in the slot. I am the last one. When my turn arrives I put my hand in my pocket and instead of the ticket card I get out a slice of ham. I repeatedly try to insert it in the slot but cannot succeed because the slice bends instead of staying straight.

Much ink was used to object the presence of an "penis envy" in some women but, in front of such a dream, I think there is little room for objections unless one refuses to admit evidence.
To square accounts, I will report the following dream. It is by a man.

Dream No. 47

I am strolling the countryside when I feel I have a motion of my bowels. So I curl up behind a hedge and start doing what I have to do... Suddenly I see a translucent pouch come out and something alive moving inside it….

A man envies the capacity of deliverying so he dreams of having such capacity!
Under the "quality" profile, men and women are equal but under the "quantity" profile I must say that the dream I have just reported is the ONLY one of this kind I happened to meet in men whilst, with regard to women, I happened to meet several dreams similar to Dream No.46. From time to time I will report those having a clearer and incontrovertible meaning, disregarding those whose interpretation may seem somewhat forced.

Dream No. 48

The bell of my house is ringing so I go to open the door. Before opening, I peep through the spy-hole and am astonished to see that another myself is there, her back turned to me.

At the beginning of analysis this patient stated that she could not remember her dreams. After a while she started remembering her dreams that were quite meaningful as they brought to light sides of herself that she had never seen before (we can never see our back). Now her unknown side was asking to become part of her awareness sphere.
Here is an example of this process: at consciousness level her opposition to maternity was so strong that she took another way whenever she met a pregnant woman, as superstitious people do in Italy whenever they meet a black cat.

I will not report the reasons she alleged to explain such a behaviour as they are not useful to the purposes of what I am saying, I will just add that kindergartens, unclosing eggs, chickens, prams, and so on started to come up in her dreams to confirm the fact that, deep inside herself, she was longing to become a mother.

When she reported to me what her behaviour was whenever she met a pregnant woman, I was immediately struck by such an unusual conduct but refrained from telling her so because, in case I had done it, she would have unloaded over me the heap of rational argumentations she had built up along the time to justify the way she behaved, thus resulting in a strengthening of her opinions.
Placed in front of her dreams, on the contrary, she was greatly surprised, almost incredulous but in the end she could but acknowledge her deep desire and change her attitude towards pregnant women and maternity in general.

Dream No. 49

For many times, in different days, I covered the same stretch of highway where a road yard with ongoing works was. I was greatly surprised because works were getting on even if no worker could be seen around. In the end, stirred by curiosity, I took the telephone number of the yard supervisor and rang him up to ask for some explanations.
He said: "It is very simple, madam, workers do their job at night".

While analysis is in progress patients are quite disappointed when they go through periods in which nothing seems to happen hence time seems to go by with no result. During these periods they think that sittings are wasted (and so is the money they pay for the fee!).
The woman that had this dream was going through such a period but through this dream her unconscious sent her this reassuring message : "Do not worry if you can see no ongoing activity at consciousness level and everything seems to be still, works are being performed during the NIGHT (that is in the unconscious) so you will feel only their final result ".

Dream No. 50

The following dream was sent to me:

I wanted to go to the bathroom to take a shower but the key was kept by a nurse. To get the key, it was necessary to pay, or something alike, and I had no money. Then I discovered that the nurse had a 40% on her conscience (no idea!!! Bribes?).
So I went to the reception desk and said to her: "Forty per cent…" in an allusive way. She understood immediately and handed the key over to me.
I went to the bathroom, it was open. The key was used to close, not to open, but closing was rather difficult as it was necessary to lock a padlock held in between two small plastic plates, after sliding it through some rings in rather a complicated way. It took me some time but, in the end, I managed to close it.

As I have already said on other occasions, a lonely dream can be interpreted only if it refers to the general topics of life, those related to all human beings.
In this case, the dream seems to be connected to a "personal" problem you may have therefore it can hardly be understood unless what is presently around and inside you is known.
Generally speaking, it can be said that this dream expresses your wish of making an inner clean up but this wish is strictly dependant upon two elements:

 

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