Dreaming about wanting something you would not want awake
What does it mean to want something in a dream you would not want in life?
The desire is fully felt and directed at something, or someone, you have no waking interest in. People find this among the most uncomfortable things to record.
Dreams generate emotion and then attach it. Desire, like fear, can arrive before its object and bind to whatever is present. That is a better account of these dreams than any reading about suppressed wishes.
The old interpretive tradition that treats dream desire as hidden truth is described on this site as a tradition, and labelled as one. It is not evidence.
Where this reads well
Nothing you did or wanted in a dream is a decision. Almost everyone has these and almost nobody mentions them.
Where it is harder
Do not treat a dream as a confession. The Freudian reading is a historical position, not a finding, and it has caused a great deal of unnecessary guilt.
Worth asking yourself
Did the feeling attach to something specific, or was it there first?
Dream interpretation is subjective. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a prediction, or medical advice.
Sources and reviewed references
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