Dream symbolism

Within the various psychoanalytic approaches, the disguised expressions in dreams wherein one thing is a "stand-in" or a symbol for something else. The usual interpretation is that the symbols are necessary for deeply repressed wishes to escape censorship. There are "standard" interpretations for some commonly occurring dream symbols -- towers, pencils, pistons, and other entities that share functional, physical, or linguistic similarities are almost universally taken as phallic symbols, likewise boxes, doorways, and tunnels as vaginas. However, it is misleading to generalize blindly the symbolic elements of dreams. If dream analysis is to be of value it needs to be carried out with a sensitivity to the dreamer's own life and to the manner in which the free-associations to the dream unfold. "Pop psychology" books on dream symbolism and meaning should be avoided.