Abscess

Painful and withheld emotions or memories. Occasionally it might represent a site of actual physical illness. Perhaps the abscess represents a situation in which old and painful experiences are coming to the surface to be dealt with.

The part of the body on which the abscess appears might give a clue to what part of yourself in terms of personality or abilities the dis-ease is felt.

Abscess still swollen and unrelieved: Emotions still repressed and may be causing psychological infection – influencing views and decisions negatively. The dream abscess may also represent a site of physical illness which may or may not be obvious while awake. In the example below, the abscess has released its pus, or painful feelings, perhaps through Hilary’s prolonged crying. The emotions are, with Hilary, affecting her ‘grasp’. She also uses other imaged word play in ‘near the knuckle’. Washing up shows her clearing away the influence of her ‘evening meal’ of experience. See: individuation; body dreams.

Example: ‘Was looking at my knuckle and saw that I had a nasty boil which had come away as I did the washing up and all that was left was a big hole, pink and healthy looking skin around. It felt very close to my knuckle bone. My lover had told me he was leaving me for good, and going back to his children. That evening, I cried most of the night.’ Hilary K.

Useful questions are:

What part of my body is this on, and am I aware of any problem in that area?

Are there painful past experiences, or irritating thoughts that may still be causing dis-ease in my life?

What does that part of my body represent psychologically? (Look it up in the rest of the dictionary, i.e. arm; legs; chest.)

Explore you dream by using Dream Processing.