Dreaming about being stabbed: betrayal, fear and the science

What dreaming about being stabbed usually points to

Dream interpretation is not prediction and not diagnosis. This article separates what sleep research observes from what popular interpretation associates with the theme, always saying which is which.

Dreaming that you were stabbed does not announce an assault and does not prove that someone is betraying you. The dream tends to appear when a person feels hurt by someone close, exposed in some situation or let down by someone they trusted. In English, as in Portuguese, "to be stabbed in the back" means to be betrayed by someone who was on your side, and sometimes the dream acts out the phrase literally.

This article covers the scene in which you are the one who gets hurt. The knife in the kitchen, the knife in your own hand and the other versions are in the main article, dreaming about a knife. If what weighs on you is the betrayal itself, with or without a blade, read dreaming about betrayal.

Read also: Dreaming about being shot and Dreaming about a fight or an argument.

Why a stabbing gets into the dream

The continuity hypothesis, tested by Michael Schredl and Friedrich Hofmann in 2003, says that dreaming reuses what fills waking life. A stabbing has one particular feature: unlike a gunshot, which can come from a distance, it requires someone close. That is why the attacker so often has a familiar face. A meeting where a coworker took credit for your work, a secret passed along, a curt reply from a family member: material like this comes back at night in different clothes.

The effect also carries over into the morning. Dylan Selterman and colleagues, in a study published in 2014, found that what happens in dreams about a partner, such as scenes of jealousy, was associated with the couple's behavior the next day. It is worth applying to other relationships as a precaution: if you woke up angry at a friend because they hurt you in the dream, separate what they did from what the dream put together before you hold anything against them.

Sources: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003; Selterman and colleagues, Dreaming of You, Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2014.

The most common scenes and what usually goes with them

Who was holding the knife usually says more than where the blow landed. If it was someone from an old relationship, see dreaming about an ex; if it was a friend, dreaming about a friend; if it was someone you already consider an adversary, dreaming about an enemy. When the scene had blood in it, read also dreaming about blood.

See also: Dreaming that someone is trying to kill you and Dreaming about being lost.

When the dream calls for care

A single dream about being stabbed is no cause for alarm. It deserves attention when it repeats several times a week, when you start avoiding sleep, or when the scene relives an assault that really happened. Frequent nightmares have treatment, and a health professional can help. See how to have fewer nightmares.

If the threat exists outside the dream, seek protection: contact the police or emergency services (911 in the US). People facing domestic violence can reach out to a domestic violence hotline or local support services, such as the National Domestic Violence Hotline in the US, free and at any hour. If you are in intense distress, in the US you can call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), available 24 hours a day; outside the US, look for your local crisis line.

Source: Morgenthaler and colleagues, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018.

Being stabbed in a dream according to Freud, Jung and faith

In Freud's psychoanalysis. In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud compares the dream to a rebus, that "picture puzzle" in which each figure stands for a syllable or a word, not for the drawing itself. Whoever tries to read the image literally gets lost; whoever looks for the word behind it finds the meaning. A stab in the back can be exactly that: a figure of speech turned into a scene. The Freudian method then asks who, in the last few days, made you think "that was a stab in the back".

In Jung's psychology. In Man and His Symbols, Jung describes the compensatory function of dreams: they bring up what the conscious attitude leaves aside. Someone who keeps telling themselves they trust a person blindly may dream about the doubt they will not admit. The opposite also happens: someone who has been suspicious of everything may see that fear magnified at night. It is a reading for reflection, not evidence against anyone.

In symbols and faith. The Bible knows the pain of betrayal at close range well. In Psalm 55, the psalmist says he could bear the insult of an enemy, but laments that the blow comes from a companion with whom he shared conversations and walked side by side (Psalm 55:12-14). In 2 Samuel 20, Joab greets Amasa as a brother and strikes him with the sword he held in his hand. For people of faith, the dream can reopen the theme of forgiveness, which Jesus asks for "seventy times seven" (Matthew 18:22, King James Version), without that meaning you must stay close to someone who does you harm.

Bringing both readings together. Research shows how the hurts of the day build the scene. Psychoanalysis reminds us that language gives shape to the dream, and faith asks what to do with the wound. None of them justifies accusing someone because of a dream.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols.

Being stabbed in dream books

In O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book, L. P. Baçan has an entry of its own for a stabbing: in life, illness; in love, marriage. The romantic reading surprises anyone who expects to find betrayal there, and it shows how popular dream dictionaries do not match the meaning the expression has in everyday speech. It is tradition, not prediction.

Freud called this procedure the decoding method: each image is swapped for a fixed meaning, as with a key, without asking the dreamer anything. In his method, the same stabbing can have different meanings for someone who had just been fired and for someone who had argued with their sister.

Sources: L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014; Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900.

What folk belief associates with this dream

In Brazilian folk reading, being stabbed in the back is a warning of falseness from someone close; being stabbed and surviving, victory over envy; being wounded by your partner, jealousy or insecurity in the relationship. The line "Et tu, Brute?", which Shakespeare put in the mouth of Julius Caesar, helped fix the idea of the blow that comes from a friend. These are cultural beliefs, for reflection, and not predictions. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.