The Element Encyclopedia of 20,000 Dreams: The Ultimate A–Z to Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams. Theresa Cheung

or free from convention in waking life. Exposing yourself in a dream may also have something to do with truthfulness; perhaps you need to be more honest and direct in waking life.

      NAKEDNESS

      One of the most common and often embarrassing dreams is to find yourself naked in a public place, wearing only your underwear or clothes that are see-through. Nakedness may represent a longing to return to childhood innocence, as the dream represents the real you, stripped of pretence and social conditioning. Do you have a desire to be seen for who you are or to reveal your essential personality without having to create a façade? Another interpretation is that nakedness expresses a latent exhibitionism or simply a desire for sex. Freud once stated that his favorite dream was of being naked in a crowd of strangers.

      From a Freudian perspective, a naked female is usually an expression of sexual desire for dreamers—men or women—who are sexually attracted to women. Freudians see the naked male in much the same light as the naked female, as an expression of sexual desire for men. In Jungian terms, nakedness suggests aspirations for love and rebirth, or a desire to attain spiritual awareness and to renounce the material world. According to this interpretation, nakedness is also an expression of beauty, creativity and divinity. Ancient gods such as Venus, goddess of beauty, and Diana, the goddess of the hunt, are often depicted naked.

      A naked child is particularly associated with the Jungian archetype of the divine child, and more generally with innocence and lack of inhibition. If you are covering up a child’s nakedness in the dream, this indicates a general discomfort with emotional expression. Many psychologists favor the interpretation that dreams of nakedness highlight feelings of vulnerability. Such dreams may be interpreted as a fear of sexual relationships, but they are more likely to signify fears and anxieties about yourself, and the way you appear to others. Perhaps you feel failure or rejection if you reveal your true self. In your waking life, you therefore need to overcome feelings of vulnerability and learn to be more self-confident.

      Being partly dressed in a dream may suggest that you are not prepared for what lies ahead. It might be wise to re-examine your plans and your future. If the people in the dream seem unaware that you are underdressed or naked, this suggests that you shouldn’t worry about showing your real self to others. It may also signify that you are not worried about what others think of you, or that you long to show sides of your true personality to others. To dream of being ashamed or frightened may indicate a fear of showing your real feelings. If, on the other hand, you are disgusted by your own, or another person’s, nakedness, or other people are disgusted with your own nakedness, this suggests anxiety about discovering the naked truth about yourself, another person or a situation.

      If you positively welcome the nakedness of other people in your dream, it may express a frustration with what, in waking life, you perceive to be their affected behavior—you wish they could be more natural. It may also suggest that you can see through people and see them for who they are. If you are sufficiently secure within your own self-image in waking life, you will not be afraid of being stripped in public in a dream. For example, dreaming of appearing naked in a strip show