A dream about being kept in prison
Prisons, especially those with top security, are not associated too positively. Also in dreams, they arouse negative feelings, and even after waking up, we feel uncomfortable.
The versions of this dream may be more or less complex. We may be arrested and sentenced to imprisonment, even not knowing the reason. We may also be in prison since the beginning of our dream, not knowing how we got there. Finally, we may be trying to escape from prison, and it may finish successfully or unsuccessfully.
How to interpret a dream about being kept in prison?
It is believed that dreams about being kept in prison are the expression of our guilt for our acts or thoughts. They may also express our fear of people who are trying to control us and to limit our freedom in real life. Or maybe we are restraining ourselves from starting a relationship or we work in a place where we are controlled by a tough superior? If a prison officer appears in our dream, we should think whether his personality reminds us of somebody from our surrounding, or whether we can assign him any specific qualities.
Let’s think why we were dreaming about prison. Maybe we have built it ourselves, to keep there our fears, inhibitions and worries, which causes that we can not realize our dreams in life? Or maybe the prison is the symbol of top-down rules which we have to obey?
Dreams about prison may also appear at the first stages of post-traumatic recovery, when we experience a sense of a loss and confusion. During the stage of the shock and denial, we may think that he is not able to regain control over his life – the circumstances created some kind of prison. Only when we accept what happened, we will be able to move on and to recover.
If we manage to escape from prison successfully, we have a great chance to achieve freedom, to defeat our worries and fears of realizing our dreams – even our unconscious mind senses it. If the escape is unsuccessful, we would probably like to break the ties, get free and find our own independent way, but it is hard to do at the moment. As for now, we need social acceptance, but it is possible that the desire to get free will take over us soon.
How would Freud interpret a dream about being kept in prison?
According to Freud, by committing a crime in a dream we expresses our hidden desires and wishes. Analyzing the case of his friend, who was dreaming about the police who arrived to his house, because he had killed his children, the psychiatrist realized that the dream was the expression of worry about unwanted pregnancy of the married woman, whom he had an affair with.
How would Jung interpret a dream about being kept in prison?
In Jung’s opinion, dreams about committing a crime express the dark side of our personality, and the person who captivates us is the expression of the Shade, which is the source of our creativeness. Without accepting it, the correct psychical and spiritual development is not possible, that is why we should not be afraid to explore it.
