A dream about committing a crime

Minor offenses, such as speeding or crossing a street at a red light, happen to everyone. But what if we become a serious offenders in our dream and do something, which we would never dare to do in real life?

In a typical dream about committing a crime, we steal something from a shop or a place of work, attack or even kill somebody who we know, and after the murder we are trying to get rid of the body… As a general rule, we face serious problems, which preserve us from doing that – the hiding place seems to be to obvious, the hole is to shallow… We are accompanied by anxiety and fear of being caught, as well as by compunctions. However, we sometimes feel a great relief after committing a crime…

In the other version of this dream, we get caught right after committing a crime and are punished, or even executed for our acts.

How to interpret a dream about committing a crime?

A dream about doing something which we would not be able to do in real life means that we need to get more control over our life and behavior. Maybe there is a person who likes to dominate over us and will not let us make our own decisions, and we want to get released from his/her influence in a dream? Maybe the person who we are attacking knows something about us which he/she is not supposed to? Maybe he/she is competing for a job with us? Maybe we envy him/her something?

On the other hand though, the person who is being attacked in our dream represents a specific aspect of our psyche, particular emotions and feelings, which are unwanted. That is why we have to get rid of him/her in order to feel better. If we feel better after the committed crime, probably we will manage to discover those qualities of our personality, which causes us problems, and we will start fighting them.

If we feel fear and compunctions after the crime, it is possible that we are scared that some unpleasant truth about ourselves will see the light of the day. If the punishment for the crime is the central motif of our dream, we are scared of the consequences of our acts, or we have negative feelings towards somebody from our surrounding.

Let’s think about the feelings which the person from our dream arouses, who she/he is to us, why we want to get rid of him/her, what qualities he/she could represent, etc. What has been bothering us lately, what would we like to release from?

How would Freud interpret a dream about committing a crime?

According to Freud, committing a crime in a dream is the expression of 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 committing a crime?

In Jung’s opinion, dreams about committing a crime express the dark side of our personality, are 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.

In a woman’s dream, a police officer may be the symbol of Animus – the masculine lively element, which is often assigned the abilities of logical thinking and judging.