Killing Someone

What does it mean to dream about killing Someone?

Dreaming that you kill someone is usually a stark image of wanting to be rid of something, a trait, a tie, or a pressure, rather than any real wish to harm.

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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 held that dreams give cover to feelings the waking mind refuses, including anger and the wish to be free of someone. Killing in a dream may voice hostility you would never act on. He would ask who the victim is and what they represent to you.

After Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (Brill trans., 1913), public domain.

Jung

Jung might read the act as an attempt to put down a part of yourself, often projected onto the other figure. Killing can show the ego trying to suppress what it will not own. He would ask whether that part needs destroying or rather integrating.

Jungian concept (our summary).

Modern

By the continuity view, dreaming of killing often reflects waking frustration, resentment, or a strong wish for something to stop. The dream borrows a violent image for an everyday feeling of having had enough. It rarely points to literal intent.

Continuity hypothesis (our summary).

Mythological

Many myths turn on a killing the hero must carry, from the slaying of a monster to a kinship death that brings lasting consequence. The act can mean release or a burden of guilt, depending on the tale. The dream may carry that same double weight of relief and unease.

Rosmerta Publishing editorial synthesis (after Bulfinch; Brewer).

This is a starting point to think with, not a verdict. Your own associations matter most.

If distressing nightmares keep returning, it can help to talk them over with a doctor or therapist.

Interpretations are adapted in our own words from public-domain sources, including G. H. Miller, Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted (1901), Freud (Brill translation, 1913), and Artemidorus, with cross-cultural context from Bulfinch and others. Jungian and modern-cognitive entries are original summaries of those ideas. See the bibliography for full sources.

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