The Psychology of Nightmares

Nightmares. We all have them. But what exactly do they mean? Why do we have bad dreams? Is there any psychological meaning behind them? Nightmares are the source of much of the horror we see in stories, myths, movies and games. They are an encounter with the dark side of the unconscious, which often includes facing some of the most painful aspects of who we are. And one does not know what that part of oneself is, until one confronts it.

Nightmares are the most substantial and vitally important dreams, and are of therapeutic value. They wake us up with a cry, as if all our repressed content forms a bubble which expands until it bursts one night, and we experience a nightmare. They are the shock therapy nature uses on us when we are too unaware of some psychological danger, and shock us out of deep unconscious sleepiness about some dangerous situation. As if the unconscious says, “Look here, this problem is urgent!” The psyche tells us to “wake up” and face what we have neglected. The majority of nightmares represent opportunities for personal healing through much-needed emotional release.

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🎶 Music used

Aftermath – Kevin MacLeod
Dreams Become Real – Kevin MacLeod
Heartbreaking – Kevin MacLeod
Sinister Dark Ambient Background Music – Dark Rage – CO.AG Music
Crystal Dream Mix – CO.AG Music
The Long Dark – Scott Buckley
Peaceful Ambient Background Music – Heroes – CO.AG. Music
Exhale – Myuu

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📝 Sources

- Jones, E. (1910). On the nightmare. American Journal of Psychiatry, 66(3), 383-417.
- Rupprecht, C. S. (Ed.). (1993). Dream and the Text, The: Essays on Literature and Language. State University of New York Press.
- Cox, A. M. (2015). Sleep paralysis and folklore. JRSM open, 6(7), 2054270415598091.
- Rees, O., & Whitney, L. (2020). The sleep paralysis nightmare, wrathful deities, and the archetypes of the collective unconscious. Psychological Perspectives, 63(1), 23-39.
- https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/nightmare.html
- Dr. von Franz on the psychology of dreams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQTDTcup04&t
- Lucid dreaming techniques, Dr. Stephen LaBerge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFjiAUYZj68&t
- https://web.archive.org/web/20120319134910/http://www.nightmares.info/nightmares.htm
- https://www.samwoolfe.com/2014/06/a-jungian-perspective-on-nightmares.html
- https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep/night-terrors-vs-nightmares#causes-of-nightmares
- https://www.thesap.org.uk/articles-on-jungian-psychology-2/carl-gustav-jung/dreams

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⌛ Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction
(3:00) Dream-Motifs in Nightmares
(3:37) Lilith: The First Nightmare
(5:07) The Origin & Folklore of Nightmares
(9:09) Non-REM Sleep (Night Terrors)
(10:36) REM Sleep (Nightmares)
(11:43) Nightmare in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment
(15:40) Fever Dreams and Franz Kafka
(17:36) Post-Traumatic Nightmares and Recurring Nightmares
(19:00) Precognitive Nightmares
(20:36) Carl Jung and The Meaning of Dreams
(26:07) The Shadow and Nightmares
(28:32) The Devouring Mother Archetype
(30:39) Active Imagination
(33:08) Lucid Dreaming
(36:14) Nightmares and Artists
(37:40) Nightmare Artists: Beksiński and Giger

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Thank you for your support.

#nightmare #psychology #dreams