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Self> Dream Naked
Dreaming Yourself Naked
By Lauri Jean Crowe
Published September 2002
Almost everyone has had
a dream where they were naked, or scantily clad
in just their underwear. Perhaps you dreamt you
were in school, or in a grocery store or even
just walking down the street without a stitch
of clothing on your back. Maybe you suddenly found
yourself nude on a beach, naked on the bus or
up on a stage in your birthday suit. This is a
common dream motif, yet nakedness is a complex
symbol in dreams dependent on the culture in which
the dream occurs and who is interpreting the experience.
Dream motifs arise from a society's shared beliefs,
experiences, fears and anxieties, literally from
the hopes and dreams of the people both individually
and collectively. As such, these experiences which
are fundamental to all peoples, will hold significance
dependent upon the culture's attitude toward them.
One populations attitude toward nakedness can
vastly differ from another's.
For example, in Western
culture, public nudity is often taboo and in some
areas it is even illegal. As such, the attitude
of populations in Western culture toward nakedness
are often unfavorable.
Dreams, in which nakedness
is viewed as an anxiety, can sometimes be traced
to our childhood experiences. Such would be the
case if a parent taught their child that nakedness
and the human body are to be something hidden
from the public view, or even more compounded
if the parent taught that nudity is something
to be ashamed of. Sigmund Freud took the viewpoint
that our childhood experiences leave a deep imprint
on our minds and that dreams of nudity in an adult
are an unconscious longing for the freedom of
childhood, free from worry or care.
However, wherever the origin
of nakedness anxieties arise for an individual
or culture as a whole, the human mind tends to
create dreams in flashes of visual imagery which
can symbolically represent our individual personal
hopes and fears. For one dreamer, a dream of being
naked could be a window to the inner self which
indicates a fear of sexuality, being exposed or
vulnerability and weakness. For yet another, it
may have a more positive spin, indicating attributes
such as honesty and openness (such as in the cliche
"the naked truth").
Only the dreamer can interpret
what their own dreams of nakedness entail. For
one person, it will mean that wonderful feeling
of being uninhibited, unencumbered, of being free
to express yourself as you choose. For another,
dream nudity will be a nightmare representing
complete exposure of the deepest, most hidden
parts of the self.
Dream dictionaries,
interpreters and psychiatrists will all offer
suggestions on what nakedness means in the dream
based on their personal proclivities and schooling.
You can go to any modern bookstore and find shelves
of books which will tell you that one particular
dream motif means one thing or another. However,
you must decide for yourself how important underwear
are to you, and what it means to be naked in the
dream.
Writer:
Lauri Jean Crowe is a freelance writer known for
such diverse topics as dreams, sexuality, gardening,
health and parenting. She is a freelance writer,
artist and designer living in Michigan, USA. Lauri
Jean welcomes feedback at vu-writer@earthlink.net
and is seeking serious individuals who wish to be
interviewed about all aspects of sexuality.
To learn more about this writer and her diverse
skills follow these links
The
Living Herbal
Managing
Editor, Customs, Etiquette, Folklore
Contributing
Editor, The Art & Science of Dreams
Short Story
Editor at Mocha Memoirs
Index of
writers, the-vu
About
Lauri Jean Crowe's own dreams
Mythwell Survey
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