In the interpretation of dreams, Nakedness in Public is among the recurring images that traditional dream-books and modern depth psychology have alike tried to read. It is commonly interpreted as vulnerability, exposure, shame, or the fear of being judged.
Common readings
This very common dream is generally read as a fear of exposure, of being seen as one truly is, or of judgement, though it can also mark a wish to be open and unguarded.
The reading of dream symbols has a long documented history, from the Oneirocritica of Artemidorus in the second century to Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) and the archetypal psychology of C. G. Jung. Such meanings are interpretive conventions of those traditions, offered here as ways the image has been understood rather than as fixed or established fact; in practice a symbol takes much of its sense from the individual dreamer and the setting of the dream.
What changes the reading
The weight of the dream sits in the audience's response and the dreamer's feeling. In the commonest form of the dream the crowd takes no notice at all, and interpreters make much of that gap between the dreamer's shame and the world's indifference. Where the nakedness is noticed, mocked or punished the reading darkens toward real exposure; where it is free of shame altogether some traditions read innocence rather than vulnerability. What the dreamer was unable to cover, and before whom, is usually treated as the operative detail.