Thread: Having sadist dreams. Just need some sort of possible clarification

If you enjoy this kind of violence only in a dream and not in waking life, and do not have a hidden desire for it in waking thought, then no you are not truly sadistic. Dreams exaggerate. Normal people can and do have crazy dreams. Oh and sometimes normal people enjoy some violent fantasy and as long as it does not translate into waking action, it does not have to be harmful.

I am not a violent person at all in waking real life. However, I do at times enjoy reading serial killer mystery books and such. I once had a very violent dream in which I participated in a gruesome civil war type uprising. I also once had a dream in which I was one of two amazon women going down the Amazon river on water scooters with machine guns and gunning down people on the shore on sort of a pleasure killing spree. And I woke up from that dream feeling empowered and not guilty.

Now the key is that in reality I am a very nonviolent woman, and in favor of gun control, and I would be like one of the last people ever to go on a pleasure shooting spree. So if I can have that kind of dream, anyone can. It's not having that kind of dream that determines one's personality and sanity level, it is evaluating one's personality overall especially waking life.

Oh, and what just occurred to me: I think the reason why I did not feel guilty or disturbed after the pleasure killing spree on the amazon river was because once I woke up I had absolutely no doubt that this was not something I would really do in waking life, so there was nothing to feel guilty about. Could it be that this is why you also felt no guilt after your dream? Conversely, I was furious with myself when I woke up after a dream in which I (a married woman) asked a coworker out on a date, even though the dream did not actually show the date, and even though I actually would not ask the coworker out, but I realized that the reason why I had this dream was because I had an illicit attraction to this coworker, and I had no business feeling that way. So I think that our reaction to a dream is in part indicative of whether there actually is a problem. Of course, a sociopath could have a dream about killing people and feel no guilt, but unless one is a sociopath, a lack of guilt may be indicative that there is nothing to feel guilty about there. However, conversely the presence of guilt would not mean that one feels that one would actually be likely to kill people of course, but then one needs to just examine one's emotions and think why one is feeling guilty and whether one is disturbed for healthy or unhealthy reasons. Does this make sense?