Deformity / dismemberment / paralysis Dream Meanings

A dream in which you find yourself deformed in some way is most likely a selfcritical dream; its interpretation will depend upon what body part or body parts are disfigured.

If you find yourself deformed in your dream, in what way do you feel disabled or frightening to others in waking life? Or have you been crippled by an emotional situation and been unable to do anything about it? Has someone in waking life hurt you? A dream of someone else’s deformity may be symbolic of a deformed part of yourself, but it might also be showing you some distasteful part of another person’s personality of which you were previously unaware. A person with a deformity in your dream may represent the trickster archetype mocking your own pretensions, although for Freud it represented a fear of male impotence, and for Jung it was a symbol of the devouring mother. A limp can be a warning from the unconscious of those dangers of pride and ambition that bring humiliation rather than success upon the dreamer.

If you are using crutches in your dream, are you relying on crutches, such as alcohol, nicotine or controlled drugs, in waking life?

Very often dreams of paralysis and numbness may be induced by the dreamer’s arm or leg going to sleep as the result of a trapped nerve.

If this is not the case, dreams of being unable to move (as if rooted to the spot) may be equating paralysis with frigidity; in waking life, the dreamer might suffer from fears of sexual intimacy. Your dream may also be referring to an area of your life in which things have stagnated or not progressed as they should have. This will usually be an emotional paralysis or a feeling of helplessness in a particular situation in your life. For example, you may be caught between a spouse and a lover, or between two possible courses of action. Dismemberment of your body in a dream suggests feelings of powerlessness in waking life. Is some situation tearing you apart or do you need to take your feelings apart?