What does it mean to dream about getting Arrested?
Dreaming of being arrested often dramatises a fear of being caught out, judged, or stopped in something you have been doing.
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 arresting hand as conscience made into a figure, the inner judge laying hold of a guilty wish. Being seized can mask a fear of one's own forbidden impulses. He would ask what the dreamer dreads being held to account for.
After Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (Brill trans., 1913), public domain.Jung
Jung might see authority confronting the self, a check on conduct or a part of the psyche that feels it must be restrained. The cuffs can mark a loss of freedom the dreamer half expects. He would ask what wants curbing and what wants release.
Jungian concept (our summary).Modern
Threat simulation reads arrest as the mind rehearsing capture and the loss of control that follows. It often surfaces when waking life carries guilt, exposure, or a fear of consequences. The continuity is usually with a real worry about being found out.
Threat-simulation theory (our summary).Mythological
Stories of seizure and binding run deep, the captive led away or the figure bound for judgment. Such scenes carry the dread of being stripped of one's liberty by a greater power. The dream may echo that old fear of the hand that comes to take you.
Rosmerta Publishing editorial synthesis (after Bulfinch; Brewer).