Symbol Watcher

Most of us have different types of clothes to fit the different roles we play. If we're washing clothes in our dreams, we may be trying to clean up one aspect of our persona. If we're buying clothes, it may symbolize that we're trying to use our psychic energy, or force of will, to change one role, or aspect, of our persona.

Iconic fashion designer Edith Head once said, “You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it.” While I don’t think Head’s sentiment is true for most of us, I do think it serves as a reminder that we humans place a lot more value on clothes than simple utilitarian protection from the elements.

Clothes have always said something about who we are and where we fit into society. The most embellished attire and richest fabrics are, even to this day, worn mostly by those with the greatest power and money. Crowns and other ornate headdresses are usually reserved for royalty and tribal chieftains.

It takes us only a second or two to scan someone’s clothing and overall appearance and make a judgement about where that person stands on the socio-economic ladder. Clothes have been a status marker since we donned the first animal hide.

With that kind of collective importance ingrained in us, it’s no wonder clothing appears prominently in our dreams. From a psychological perspective, clothes often stand for our persona — that mask we decide to show the outside world.  When we’re dressing or undressing in our dreams, we’re often changing personas.

To discover exactly what our unconscious is trying to tell us, we need to look at what type of clothes we’re taking on and off. What are our associations with these type of clothes? Who might normally wear them in conscious life? Are these clothes the type our father or mother wore to work? Are they the clothes of a person in history or current culture that we admire? Are they clothes we wore when we were much younger (perhaps pointing to a regressive attitude we need to let go of or a childlike creativity and wonderment we need to embrace)? 

Which persona are we trying to adopt or shed in our dream and why?

If we keep in mind that dreams are, by and large, compensating for some conscious attitude that is out of balance with our true Self, then the dream may be trying to show us we need to shed — or adopt — the persona aspects the clothes represent in order to achieve greater inner harmony.

In her book, Awakening Woman Dreams and Individuation, Jungian analyst Nancy Qualls-Corbett tells us about a dream her analysand “Leila” had in which her mother is instructing her to put on layer after layer of clothing, criticizing Leila every step of the way.: “In the dream there are layers and layers of persona issues which mother has commanded her daughter to wear . . . Some are hidden away, out of sight . . . all is a mess and belongs to Mother, a sick persona where the mask is rigidly stuck.” 

Fortunately for Leila, she grew out of needing to adopt the personas her mother thrust upon her. She soon developed her own style of dream dress that corresponded to her burgeoning individuality in waking life.  

– Writeye

Posted on June 3rd, 2009 under Dreams, Jungian Psychology, Symbol Brief • Tags: clothes as symbols of persona, clothes buying symbolism, clothes symbolism, clothes washing symbolism, persona definition. •  Print This Post •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback