THE DREAM It was me and my boyfriend and we were in LA. we were going out to a club. We were walking out of where we just parked. My boyfriend had forgotten something in the car. He told me to stay right there and he would be right back. Right after he left I saw a group of guys coming. They stopped and talked to me. They were getting really persistent. Then one of them punched me and the rest grabbed me and held me down. They took turns raping me. I was screaming and yelling. When they were done they hit me one last time and dropped me. My boyfriend returned to find me laying there.

GUESSWORK The dreamer had just got back from a long enjoyable weekend. She got to sleep with him every night and felt very happy waking up next to him. On their bus ride home they had a talk about the future where he said he wanted to be with her forever. The dreamer started crying because she was scared he would leave her or hurt her. But he reassured her he would not. She was still sad that they would not be sleeping together that night.

The "Guesswork" stage of interpreting a dream involves spotting issues likely to cause dreams. For help with this click here

ASSOCIATIONS AND SYMBOLIC MEANINGS
1. The dream featured the dreamers boyfriend. The dream could be about any new thoughts that the dreamer has had about him. In this case she wanted him to wake up next to him because it made her feel reassured and protected. The dream merely plays this out because it takes her to a situation where he is not there to protect her.
2. The rapists were persistent. That may just represent some very persistent bad thoughts. In this case the dreamer had persistent bad thoughts that he would leave her. They had no basis in fact though.

DREAM ANALYSIS In guesswork the dream was linked to the situation which happened the night before. The dream deals with the following themes
- Persistently bad thoughts
- A thought about her boyfriend

If you weave together the different themes you find that they could capture this thought that the dreamer was thinking at the time-"I would have been more reassured if I had been sleeping with my boyfriend now... I just feel better when he is there to protect me."