It is inevitable to have nightmares or horrible dreams during a night and one should not forget the details to make an interpretation. Dreaming about the death of someone close to you is one of those dreams that leaves you distraught for several days thinking that it may be prescient, but it is not. Find out what it means to dream of the death of a loved one.
The first thing to keep in mind with these death related dreams is that they are not prophetic dreams and will not come true, so don't panic. They also don't assume an unconscious desire to want the person who dies in the dream to disappear from your life, so that you can put aside that feeling of guilt that hasn't left you since you dreamed it. The meaning of this dream has little to do with misfortune.
Dreaming about the death of a loved one: The three meanings
You worry about her
As a rule, dreaming that someone you love dies occurs when you are worried about that person. Maybe she's sick, maybe she's going through a bad time in her life, or maybe you think she's not ready to face all the problems she has. That your subconscious presents your concern for this person in the form of death is something that even Freud himself could not explain.
You walk away from this person
You can also have this dream because you have distanced yourself from this person, a family member or a friend and you are afraid that this distance cannot be overcome.
It somehow implies the death of the relationship and this is how you should interpret the dream. Of course, as soon as you wake up, you must use the dream to do the right deeds.
She's on a fresh start
There is one more reason to dream about the death of a loved one if you understand death as a kind of rebirth. When we die, we close one cycle and open another, that's why we can have this dream when that dear person is about to change his life, to go to a foreign country, to perform a deep renewal of his personality or for some other drastic change he is about to experience.
Dreams about death are very distressing, especially if they are about loved ones, relatives, family members, friends, etc. This type of dream can be very disturbing and upsetting, to the point of creating fear that what one has dreamed of could actually happen. In this regard, remember that death in dreams is not to be taken literally: it often has a metaphorical meaning, so you don't have to worry too much about what it saw.
The most common dreams about the death of a loved one
Dreaming about the death of a loved one and not being saddened
It may happen to dream that a person you love very much dies, but it may be that in the dream you are not particularly sad. This means that death is not the real core of the dream, but represents an event that serves as a necessary premise for the development of certain situations that are the real content of the dream.
In this regard, it may be useful to cite as an example a dream reported by Freud in his Interpretation of Dreams: a girl dreams that her grandson, her sister's son, is dead, and she sees him inside the coffin. In fact, the older brother of this child was really dead, and the aunt at the funeral had been able to see the man she was in love with after a long time. We then easily understand where this dream of death comes from: the death of the other represents for this woman the opportunity to see the man she is still in love with.
So, if you happen to dream about the death of a loved one, and you do not feel any particular discontent in the dream, it is very likely that the real content of the dream is something else.
Dreaming about the death of a loved one and feeling sad
It's the most frequent case ; sooner or later we all dream of the death of people who are very dear to us: the death of father, mother, son or daughter, husband/wife, brother/sister, boyfriend/ girlfriend, friend, uncle, grandfather, etc.
These dreams are experienced with great anguish; you may wake up suddenly, perhaps in tears; then we note with relief that it was only a dream; however, even during the day, one thinks about this dream with apprehension, fearing for the life of the loved one.
As mentioned, there is no need to worry, as these dreams are not prescient. Freud makes them fall into typical dreams, the ones we all have sooner or later. Let's look at some of them in detail:
Dreaming about the death of the father or the mother
According to Freud, these dreams have to do with the Oedipus complex of early childhood: male children "love" their mother and "hate" their father; similarly, daughters "love" their father and "hate" their mother whom they would like to replace.
These dormant feelings can reappear in our adult dreams. This does not mean that if you dream that your father is dying, you wish him dead “now”; but that you probably did 'once' in your childhood.
It should be remembered that in infancy, death is not a terrible thing as for an adult, but it is like a long journey; for such young children, 'dying' is like 'leaving and never coming back'.
Parental death can occur at particular times in life, such as adolescence and youth, when the person becomes more self-sufficient and detaches from family and parental influence; for example, this dream can come true when you are going to live alone, in your own house, different from the one in which you grew up.
Or it can also happen when certain rules imposed by the parents are transgressed, living this fact with the anguish of being discovered and the feeling of guilt for having disobeyed.
This does not mean that you are nevertheless an affectionate and loving child towards your father or your mother; you don't have to live these dreams with guilt.
Dreaming about the death of the son or daughter
In general, dreaming about the death of a son or daughter can occur under these circumstances:
The children, having grown up, gradually detach themselves from the family, go live alone or marry.
Relationships are strained, especially during adolescence and youth: the child wants more independence, more autonomy, shows that he wants to detach himself from the nest. Sometimes children, in their journey of growth, disappoint their parents and make mistakes. This too can be the starting point of the death dream.
Concern for the child: his health, his life. Anxiety, in general, predisposes to these types of dreams, even in the seemingly peaceful moments of life.
It may happen that a mother had an unwanted pregnancy and wanted to have an abortion; even if she then loved the child born from this pregnancy, this desire can appear in a dream even after many years.
Dreaming about the death of siblings
According to Freud, this dream also has its roots in childhood feelings: relationships between brothers and sisters are not always guided by romantic feelings, indeed, in very early childhood they almost never are. The child is selfish and sees in his brothers and sisters rivals who can take away his possessions and the affection of his parents.
He can therefore certainly wish that they die, that is to say that they go on a long journey (this is the image that these young children have of death). As already mentioned for parents, dreaming that a brother or sister dies does not indicate that you wish death now, but that you probably wished it once, in your early childhood.. This dream can happen to times when relationships with siblings fade.
Dreaming about death of husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend
The husband, the wife are the companions of our life, the dearest people we have. This dream may come from the fear of losing a loved one. It can also indicate an evolution in the relationship one has with this person: over time relationships change, one sees oneself with new eyes, changes occur in one's life; in a word, we are growing, we are evolving.
Death, as we have seen, in dreams has precisely this metaphorical meaning: the end of a phase, a fixed point after which a new chapter of existence begins.
