Dream analysis: I dreamt I was self-harming, cutting my arms along the pattern of my tattoos

Psychoanalyst Michael Murphy explores the meaning of your dreams

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I dreamt I was self-harming by cutting my arms - some of the cuts following the pattern of my tattoos. Previously, my analyst passed away suddenly - I didn’t continue with another analyst. In the dream, my mother came into my bedroom and saw the cuts. Referring to my analyst she said: “I knew he was useless”. I’m a nurse, and in the dream, I then went to work and tried hard to hide the cuts from one of my nurse colleagues.

This man acknowledges a link between cutting and carving symbols onto the skin when he says: “Some of the cuts followed the pattern of my tattoos”.