The Nightmare Inside

It's not very often I have dreams that you could call nightmares, but for the second night running, I've woken, having had a very vivid, horrid dream about my waking life. This isn't about monsters, or weird objects, nor is it a notational anxiety about death and destruction, but it made me wonder about the purpose of dreaming and the way in which the parts of our brain communicate.

What is the purpose of the unconscious mind?

1. Is the unconscious trying to tell you something that although you may know it to be true, but choosing to consciously ignore it. Therefore, the only way the brain can make you take note, to forewarn, so to speak, using certain images and thoughts from the conscious, thus presenting a 'known truth' sans all the perceptive filtering.
2. Alternatively, is the unconscious trying to trick, deceive, to show your worst fears, to motivate, to make you a better person. Although, I can think of worse 'worse fear' scenarios in conscious mode, it's possible motivation may be a factor, or maybe 
3. The unconscious is really just an evil prankster.

In a way, the nightmare structure can be juxtaposed with the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, but in this sense, the Freddy Krueger becomes symbolic for the event that triggers the nightmare. The unconscious, by  personifying the fear, makes it more readily identifiable to the conscious, and this is how the unconscious has chosen to communicate. My own nightmare is always personified by a face; a smiling face, staring at me, but it's evil and sinister. A bit like picking up the hanged man in a tarot reading.

By having your fear manifest in such average terms, presents a rather obscure, but nevertheless, strong argument that the unconscious has a resolute desire to communicate with the waking self. This isn't about abstracts, it's about every day life. Communication is reinforced because the message from the unconscious is presented in normal every day terms, figures and backgrounds. It's at these times, perhaps, the unconscious is trying its hardest to show the conscious mind something: a hurtful truth, reality without the process of filtering or perception. It is presenting us with its conclusion.

When the unconscious personifies your 'Freddy Krueger' as a human face from your waking life, the truth becomes ingrained in your reality, and therefore, by default, a great deal more terrifying than imaginative monsters and abstract ideas.