Another Violent Dream

Our own dreams are fascinating to ourselves but not particularly interesting to others (exceptions to the general rule are the dreams recounted and expounded in Freud's Interpretation).  I know that I presume upon my readers to record the following nightmare.  I do so only because it's such a shocking fantasia.

I was in a jewelry store with my wife somewhere on the Continent and we were about to purchase a small gold medallion.  It was tarnished;  I called the hint of greenness to the attention of the middle-aged, bald salesman.  At his instruction, I rubbed the medallion with my thumb until it began to shine.  Just as I did so, I noticed that the salesman's flaccid pecker was hanging out of the fly of his pants;  I said, "OK, that's too weird, we're out of here."  We hurried to leave but the door to the shop was locked.  The salesman, who now looked menacing (the dream began to take on the ambience of a horror movie), reached into his pocket and pulled out a key --strangely enough, a large, castle-size key.  He flourished it and opened the door for us to leave, but there was another locked door behind the first.  He took another key, equally large, out of his pocket and opened the second door.  There was still another door and I began to think that we'd never get out of the shop.  Then the salesman reached deep into his pocket, pulled out a large hunting knife and cut off his own dingus right at the root.  At this point I decided that I'd had enough and woke up.

Hey, don't tell me that I suffer from castration anxiety.  I don't, despite what the dream seems to say.  I hate to give such fodder to Freudians, but I don't invent these dreams, I just report them.  And yes, I'm well aware that a key is reputed to be a phallic symbol. 

I'd welcome interpretations that don't make the dreamer out to be infantile, maniacal, or excessively StephenKIngish.

Comments

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Fear of impotence would be the simple interpretation, if not for the fact that the salesman ("bald" and "flaccid") also wields such power. I'll guess he blends representations of impotence and celibacy. There is some exploration in the dreamer's subconscious for a way of power that does not derive from the sexual. There is no overt escape or answer -- layers of locked doors -- but the self-castration crudely resolves the matter, for the time being.