A dream about being chased

The word “chase” itself is associated with something dangerous, risky… That is why a dream in which we have the impression of being chased is not pleasant.

In the typical version of this dream, we are being chased by someone dangerous – a wild animal, a faceless creature, a monster, an alien…We can also take part in a car pursuit. Usually, we do not remember how the dream begun, we only know that the pursuer is getting closer and closer and we will not be able to lose him…We are seized with helplessness, we wake up scared and our heart is beating fast.

When does a dream about being chased occur?

Dreams about being chased, along with dream of falling down, are the most popular dreams in the world, regardless of the social and ethnic background, religion or education of the dreamer. For the first time they appear in the childhood, but they also concern a relatively big number of the adults.

How to interpret a dream about being chased?

A dream about being chased indicates that there is something that suppresses us, something we avoid and do not want to face. Maybe it is a stressful situation or a decision we are not ready to make.

The other possibility is that, deep inside us, there are latent emotions causing fear, which we trying to escape from, but – as our subconsciousness suggest by the dream – a successful escape is impossible. We have to wonder about what the pursuer will do when he catches us and compare it to the reality.

How would Freud interpret a dream about being chased?

For Freud, a dream about being chased means that the dreamer has deeply-rooted, unconscious libido. Even though he is running, he wants to get caught and subdued.

How would Jung interpret a dream about being chased?

Jung assigned dreams about being chased to the group of dreams which had been remembered by the unconscious collectivity at the time of primitive cultures, when it often that a human was running away from a wild animal. He would also give it a symbolical meaning – the dreamer is running away from something that has been bothering him, from the dark side of his psyche which he can not accept.