Sympathy
A felt fellow feeling at distance — responsive concern for another without the close contact of compassion.
Sympathy in a dream is the dream's image of felt fellow feeling at a distance — responsive concern for another's situation without the close contact that compassion involves. Sympathy is not a lesser feeling; sympathy is the right stance for the right distance. The dream brings sympathy when something in your life — a stranger's difficulty heard about in the news, a colleague's loss, a friend of a friend in crisis — is calling for an honest response that is not the closer engagement of actual contact. Sympathy honestly extended is the dream affirming the right scale. Sympathy performed loudly in public while the actual situation goes structurally unaddressed is the dream noting that the gesture is being substituted for any kind of action.