I had a dream last night. In its middle I woke up, and I remember the following dream:

I entered a public washroom with so many units in it. But all the walls inside was very dirty and shitty. I walked along the path inside the washroom but I had fear that my cloths get dirty. My cloths were kind of clean and white in color. So at the end I decided to not use any of the units in the washroom and left it. But it seems my cloths got dirty so when I left the washroom I tried to clean them with water. Then I noticed that my cloths were bright in color maybe their color was cream but not white, and also I noticed that they didn't get that dirty that I thought and by using water I could cleaned them totally.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 28 Canada

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Yusuf,
I am short of time this morning to give answer your post as thoroughly as I like. Here is a quick examination that may serve to help you understand the dream. I will look 'deeper' at it later today.

I sense the dream is focused on your public persona and how you are viewed. It may be an opinion of yourself but could be concerns of how others view or feel about you.

Washrooms are places where you 'cleanse' yourself of emotional conflicts {dreams are primarily about the dreamer's emotional conflicts}. The many units represent the many aspects that make up who you are. The dirty walls could be those things about yourself that you have built to protect yourself from past negative experiences in life and/or aspects about yourself you wish to hide. The clothes are your outer 'persona', personality. Past experiences, especially from childhood, form who you are in the present. Your opinion of yourself may be different from what it really is, you may be covering up something about yourself you are afraid to show {we all possess such traits, how 'dirty depends on the individual}. Not using any of the 'units' suggests you do not want to let these traits/aspects to be seen. You may not want to confront these negative aspects about yourself and/or you do not wish others to know about them. There needs to be a cleansing {an inner cleansing}. The bright color appearance may be addressing your persona/personality, how you present yourself in public. Others may view you differently or you are concerned they do. An inner cleansing is an unconscious task to begin with {our dreams are an unconscious attempt to help cleanse what is 'dirty'}. The dream may be attempting to get you to confront whatever is within that needs cleansing and by doing that you can be your true self and not a person who wears a 'mask' to cover up that true person. The first step is to unmask the inner self so you do 'learn' who you really are.

On the personal side, addressing recent experiences, there may have been a recent occasion or experience where you did not wish to reveal something about yourself. Something is dirty about some part of you that you did not wish to show or admit {admitting it to yourself and/or others}.

Jerry ]

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 Murfreesboro, Tn

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Jerry,
Thank you for illuminating my mind. Jerry I am familiar with Jungian Psychology. There are times that when I wake up, after a few hours or days of putting intuitive thoughts on my dream I can get the unbiased wisdom within and I use it in my waking life. Also there are times that I don't get anything significant from a dream myself and need help, like this dream. I thought the dream was addressing a sexual issue. But anyway your interpretation perfectly fits with my current situation in life. I am a judging person who analyzes people's actions and intentions, also sometimes I analyze myself, my actions, my intentions, and that makes life very hard.

I tried to be person who adheres to justice and morality, a person who admits his own mistakes and weaknesses. But recently I have lost all credibility I had for myself in my own eyes. Whenever I look at a person and see a bad attitude, instead of judging the person, I feel more compassion and I think If I am not worse maybe I am no better than him. I think if I go through the problems and experiences that the other person went through maybe I would develop the same bad attitudes even if I don't have them now! Anyway, at the moment I don't see any positive thing in myself. Confronting my shadow kind of has broken me, and left me with no self confidence. I had a hard life in the past and that made me a pessimistic person. Now this pessimism toward myself and my future is killing me.

In the past I used to think I am a wise person, and I liked that other people view me as a wise and a righteous person. Well, now I kind of think the opposite, I hardly can find a single positive aspect within myself.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 28 Canada

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Jerry,
Just wondering if you have anything more to add?

Thanks,
Yusuf

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 28 Canada

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Yusuf,
I can see where sexual abuse would be a part of the dream message. But because dreams are seldom literal determining such abuse is often hard to do. But even with that the dream is still speaking to possible abuse without naming the exact nature of the abuse. The walls can be 'literal' walls you have experienced but when looking at a dream they would also represent barriers within the unconscious. The 'dirty' would be an adjective would describe both literal experiences as well as metaphorical representations. The literal experiences are seldom discernible in dreams {one reason a younger person's dreams are so hard to interpret}. Those are something only you, the dreamer, can know as fact.

Having some experience with Jung you probably know that dreams speak in a language of symbol and metaphor. And although the dream language can be addressing literal experiences, they are more often vague at best. Without having known from the beginning of an actual experience involving sexual experiences that may involve public washroom walls, assuming there were such experiences, it is not something an interpreter of dreams could look to as a literal act. But the language could both be describing a literal experience as well as pointing to an emotional conflict from such an experience. The dream is more focused on the emotional conflict in an effort to help you resolve the conflict. This is the therapeutic function of dreams, trying to help resolve emotional conflicts in the dreamer's life. Obviously there is a conflict associated with the sexual experiences in your life.

Of course there not need be a literal experience at all {no experience with public bathroom and sex}. The dream could be addressing an emotional conflict involving sexual abuse using language that addressing a need to 'cleanse' oneself of the emotional aspects from these experiences by removing whatever barriers {dirty walls} there are that the conscious mind either will not or can not come to gripes with. Again, the dream would be speaking in symbol and metaphor, addressing the emotional issues whether there were a literal experience or not. More often than not there would not be a literal experience {sexual contact in a public restroom}, the dream language would be symbolic. Age would be important when looking at any dream. At your age, 28, there would be more of a possibility of a literal experience. In such an instance the dream would be addressing both the literal as well as the symbolic, the actual experience as well as the deeper emotional wounds from any sexual abuse or negative emotions {Jung tells us there are always two interpretations to every dream, the personal as well as the deeper associations}.

So the question becomes, for clarification as an interpreter of dreams, were literal experiences involved? Or is the dream primarily addressing issues involving sexual abuse using symbol and metaphor? I, as the interpreter, could not know of the literal experiences, would be looking the symbolic references to see there is a need for a cleansing. That is what Jungian psyche can do with a dream.

As for the emotional impact of real sexual abuse. If these were experiences from childhood then there is usually a feeling of guilt associated with the experiences. The person who suffered the abuse would feel they are responsible, at least to some extent. This is a problem that is most in need of resolution since no one can go back in time and undo the actual experiences. It is the guilt that is the emotional conflict and resolving that becomes the primary concern. The abused person must learn to understand it was not their fault, it was the person or persons who are responsible for the abuse who must be held accountable. Often it takes psychological counseling for the abused person that is needed in resolving such emotional conflicts. If you were abused then it was not your fault. But unconsciously there would be this feeling of guilt. That is what has to be resolved.

I have added a lot of hypotheticals to my response. Whatever your experiences involving sexual abuse {since you did bring up the subject as a real possibility} I want to touch on all possibilities. The intent is to help you resolve whatever emotional issues there are that the dream is attempting to address. Plus, for anyone who should read this post and the responses, be an example that could help in any emotional conflicts they may possess. As a conduit for Jung's philosophies of the dream world I seek to do what I can to help others. This is a part of the process of the hero journey, to share what is learned from experience to help others. It is what Jung termed the 'spiritual' aspect we all possess.

If you wish to add more feel free to do so. Personal information would be helpful but generalities can also help us understand what the experiences of abuse you speak of may be. That would eliminate the need for any personal info you feel uncomfortable with.

In ending I do want to express that I am not a psychologist and not trained to provide assistance beyond my experience with working with dreams as a tool in assisting others with their 'inner' conflicts. Jung was an experienced psychiatrist who has provided a set of principles to help interpret dreams. I use those principles in my interpretations and although not a 'Jung' I do believe there can be a helpful intent in interpreting dreams for anyone who seeks to better understand the inner world. That world is the true self seeking to be brought to the conscious light of day. Being brought to light, out of the darkness of unconscious barriers, healing can take place. That can lead to a better psychological condition which in turn can provide the dreamer with a balanced and more harmonious life.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 Murfreesboro, Tn

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Jerry,
I had a very hard childhood. I lived in families with so many internal conflicts. I was not the source of conflicts but I always suffered from living in those situations. But fortunately there was no case of being sexually abused.
A toilet is a place in which a person can release any excess amount of biological material. So maybe a toilet in a dream is a place for releasing any excess amount of emotions or sexual excitements. The fact that the washroom was public and there were so many internal toilet units, maybe indicates sex experiences which are not related to a mate or wife. A public washroom with so many units to some extents maybe is similar to having a whorehouse inside of the dreamer's psyche. Well that's what I meant from sexual aspect of the dream. The thing that I don't understand is I don't believe in having sexual experiences out of a real relationship or marriage, and I have been loyal to this belief to some extent. Anyway as I said earlier the first interpretation of yours perfectly fits. A love relationship of mine recently ended. As the relationship ended I deeply feel that I am not as good as I thought. I have found so many dark sides in myself, and definitely I am concerned about how other people view me or think about me; do they also see those dark sides? I don't know how much of my self knowledge at the moment is unbiased reality and how much is based on pessimism. I feel inside I have so many dark sides which as you said were hidden till now and they need cleansing. At the moment everything, e.g, my internal life, my external life, and job experience are upside down. And I feel kind of not strong enough to cleanse those parts very quickly. Maybe it takes a long process and time.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 28 Canada

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Thanks Yusuf. I provide my comments later. It is important you do discover what the 'darkness' is that makes you feel the way you do about yourself. Usually such things begin in childhood and what you provided about your childhood fits with this. Discovering this 'shadow' self is the only way you can begin a real healing.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 Murfreesboro, Tn

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Yusuf,
My bad. I read your original post thinking you had said sexual abuse when in fact you said sexual issue. A big difference if there is not physical sexual abuse by others involved. If there are sexual 'abuses' you engage in or think about that are self inflected then my interpretation may still fit. A guilt element. That makes it a purely psychological occurrence.

The pessimism you feel could very well be related to your childhood. Negative experiences during those formative years of early childhood can manifest themselves in many ways in adulthood, including negative moods. Changing from one family to another can be psychologically worse than an abusive childhood with natural parents. With the natural parents at least we have fixed and identifiable traits, patterns and habits that are handed down from parents to child. Like parents like child. Knowing those often help us understand the motivations in adult life.

Without those fixed patterns, with the many different environments that you have experienced, so many possibilities of negative influences arise that make it hard to recognize without an in-depth examination. These influences can tell us something about who you are at this point in life. If you have dark moods that would be understandable since your early foundations were built on little that is solid and productive. How you feel about yourself would be understandably negative.
The excess emotions or sexual excitements you spoke of have underlying foundations, again largely developed as a result to emotional conflicts earlier in life. If there are guilt feelings because you tend to think about 'elicit sexual experiences' then the reason for that guilt may be what is needed to be understood. You may feel dirty partially because you never received as a child the proper parental love and support a child needs to thrive. That can be projected in sexual tendencies that may not be considered normal. Depending on the 'thoughts that cause excessive sexual excitements', something that is important to consider since it can reveal other tendencies that we may not have touched on, the conflict may be from several causes. Brain chemistry itself is important and with today's 'miracle drugs' there are alternatives to psychological counseling. But my thinking is unless there are major physical injuries or abnormalities the psychological resolution is the only permanent remedy to the imbalances {excessive sexual desires}.

Saying this, the guilt may have more less than just the principles you inherited or learned {although those are still important}. Moral judgements could very well be the issue. You say you are a faithful but one who has thoughts of excessive sexual desires. Do you feel you need to act on these desires? Are they something that would be disapproved of by a moral compass? It it a religious thing or a personal ordained moral standard? Is it consider unnatural because it is not in line with moral theology? Perhaps your true nature has something to do with the thoughts. These are things you need to consider in your attempt to resolve the issues that are causing an imbalance in your waking life, causing the dark moods.

Being a person who as a young adult experienced similar 'excessive sexual desires', I can emphasise. They may not be the same desires but because they had such a strong governance over my waking life, I know they are real. Having looked back at my life I can also understand what they were and why I had them. Like father like son. The father was a truck driver who had many relationships outside marriage. He cared for only himself until the day he died.

The lack of proper support by my father left me feeling inadequate up through my teen years. It changed when a high school teacher became that model of masculine support. If that had not happened {and it only partially lifted me from those depths, inherent tendencies/patterns exsited until my late 20s} no telling how my life would have evolved.

It has been through Jung's Individuation Process I have bee able to identify the underlying causation from childhood and correct those things in life that are in conflict and out of balance. I am a different person with real principles that positively govern my path in life. Malfunctions of the psyche can be corrected by identifying the psychological origins of the individual being, and with a true discipline to make the proper corrections. Those who do take this path of self discovery often fail because they lack the discipline.

Your dreams will reveal in a general way, speaking in symbol and metaphor, what the emotional conflicts are that govern your life. I do have an ability through my 'Jungian experience' and a good intuitive sense to
understand the dream but it is limited to those general patterns that the dream will give up {my abilities are something I have developed over the last 18 years studying Jungian psyche}. If I were a therapist I would be like Jung and want to focus on the dream since it is a direct link to the unconscious. Discovering the underlying causes, the unconscious motivations, is central in any healing that needs to take place. Those motivations may not 'make' you do one thing or another in life but they can and do influence what you do and who you become. Understanding what they are, and dreams will do that, is a great help in resolving the conflicts they cause.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 60 Murfreesboro, Tn

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