What does it mean to dream about amputation?
An amputation or missing limb often points to loss and the fear of being diminished, the cutting away of some capacity, and the work of carrying on without it.
Four ways to read it
Each reading below comes from a named tradition and a cited source, so you can see where it came from and decide what fits your dream.
Freud
Freud would read the loss of a limb as a powerful image of being cut off from some part of one's power, close to deep fears of being made less. It can mark anxiety about losing a capacity the dreamer feels defines them.
After Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (Brill trans., 1913), public domain.Jung
Jung would see an amputation as the severing of some function of the self, a part that has been lost or given up. It may mark a wound to wholeness that the psyche is struggling to reckon with.
Jungian concept (our summary).Modern
Continuity ties amputation to waking experiences of loss, whether of a person, a role, or an ability one relied on. Such dreams often follow a season when something central has been taken away.
Continuity hypothesis (our summary).Mythological
Old story is full of the maimed and the one-handed, figures whose lost limb marks both a sacrifice and a fearsome cost. Across traditions a god or king who gives up a part of the body often gains some hidden power in exchange.
Rosmerta Publishing editorial synthesis (after Bulfinch; Brewer).