Violent dream

[madison93]

Hi-

I'm new to this, but have been disturbed by a dream all day...

The dream was longer and more involved, but the part that keeps coming back to me was quite disgusting- (and I hope I'm not offending anyone)

I watched a woman being forced to have anal sex with her husband- I was watching and screaming as he took a knife, slit a large X over her anus, dug in with his knife to remove something that had been previously stuffed there, and then wrap himself up before insertion.

(I am not at all a violent person, so I was horrified to wake up with this image)

Please let me know if you have any thoughts.

[Athanor]

With such an upsetting dream, it’s not usually a good idea to attempt an interpretation without having the entire dream to look at and without knowing anything about the dreamer overall as well as recent events. But one possible interpretation, based on some fairly reliable dream motifs, is that the woman could symbolize an aspect of yourself or even your entire potential for individual self development that is being “brutalized” by an inner man.

This inner figure could be forcing “unnatural acts” on your self development as a whole by leading away from your true center perhaps toward more collective ideas and “what everybody else does”. If so, this would be viewed by the dream as a “violent act” since one view of dreams is that their overall goal is to try and keep the ego in a balanced state and moving toward developing the unique mix of potentials within the individual.

Although there are various ideas connected with the symbolism of a knife, one of them relates to its being related to unconscious impulses and perhaps negative thinking as opposed to the image of a sword which often relates to the spirit and meaning.

In this take on your dream, negative destructive thinking and attitudes could possibly be in danger of taking over too often. These can relate to being too caught up in our society’s patriarchal goals of having lots of money, prestige, power, and if possible, being really well known by many others in one’s job etc. Perhaps something happened just before the dream that in some way tended to focus and bring to the surface this group of ideas.

In a recent post, I included a definition of this inner figure that’s used by one school of psychology. The quote comes from the book “Death of a Woman” by analyst Jane Wheelwright, and although perhaps seeming to be a little dry at first, mulling over the various parts of it might perhaps resonate in some way.

“Animus: The archetype in the female psyche that is the inherited pattern of potential experience of the male instinct. This archetype underlies and is basic to a complex which is affected by the individual’s early experiences of men, primarily her father, male siblings, and the collective images of men provided by her cultural experience. The images and affects [emotions] that attach to the complex express what is other than her female body-ego identity, such as her own unconscious maleness, the unconscious, the inferior function [for example, if a woman tends to move through life chiefly using emotions and evaluations, then her inferior function would tend to relate to the use of thinking and the intellect]. The animus assumes a generalized image of the individual’s male ideal, which strongly influences her selection of a mate. Consciously related to, the animus – presented in dreams as a single figure or a group – functions as inspirator or bridge to the unconscious as source of creative, mental, or spiritual initiative and well-spring of potentiality for development. The animus functions as guide to and expedites the pursuit of impersonal endeavours. When not consciously related to, the animus causes a woman to be opinionated, argumentative, rigid, controlling, and excessively critical of herself or others”

However as mentioned, without knowing more about the dream and yourself, the idea that this inner figure is the key to your dream might not fit your personal situation very well in this particular instance. But if you’d like to explore this approach further, many women find Marion Woodman’s books useful such as “The Ravaged Bridegroom”, or you could also visit the website Marion Woodman Links to see if her ideas might seem to touch something in yourself.

[madison93]

Wow! What a great analysis!

The dream occurred the night after a long argument with my long-term boyfriend as we confronted issues surrounding financial ambition/ work ethic/ "stability" / and what the "ideal" situation would be for raising a family.

(I have lived and worked abroad in Africa and S. America in humanitarian/ UN relief work and would like to potentially pursue opportunities abroad in the future... I guess I'm looking for a more adventuresome life... he is content as-is living and working in a wealthy suburb)

I will also investigate animus as it seems there may be a connection there.

Thank you!

[mythopoet]

Hi-

Athanor has provided a powerful set of ideas with which to approach your dream! I wanted to mention another.

Psyche's langauge is a language of images. Images are not material things. Images are made up. Made up in between the material and immaterial or spiritual and natural worlds. Images are no-things...shades.

Gaston Bachelard has spoken of the deformative activity of the imagination. Before any new shade of expression can be 'made-up' things must be broken down or taken apart; deformed. James Hillman calls this 'pathologizing images' to distinguish it from pathology.

A pathologized image (as opposed to a pathology of images) is basic to alchemy and to the art of memory itself.

Hillman writes

It is the pathologized image in the dream, the bizarre, peculiar, sick or wounded figure--the disruptive element--to which we must look for the key to the dream-work. Here is where the formal cause of the dream is best doing its deformational work, striking its type into the plasticity of the imagination. Dream and Underworld, p129

It is Freud who remarks of psyche at its most infantile when perversed: the original instinctual child is 'naturally' twisted. But, there is something 'contra naturam', alchemy (cor)responds, that is equally deep in its want. It wants nothing to extreme. It wants a balanced state, a harmony. It is alchemy that is solve and resolve providing the image "opus contra naturam". Soul-making or image-making (what dreams are made of) are this kind of work against nature (contra naturam) deforming it to serve it in a wider sense...

an anima(ted) sense.

Blessings,
mythopoet