Dreaming, Psychoanalysis, and Neurobiology: A Different Perspective

Psychoanalysis and neurobiology are complementary approaches to the study of dreaming that have demonstrated significant convergences of findings. Hobson's tendentious effort to utilize neurobiology to disprove psychoanalysis is largely unsupported. The perspective of Barbara Jones, like Hobson a central contributor to neurobiology, illustrates an open and judicious approach. Solms has made a major contribution in demonstrating and elucidating the crucial role of the forebrain in dreaming. However, his model detaches dreaming from REM sleep and the brain stem to a degree that is unwarranted and limiting. A number of lines of evidence for a close relationship between dreaming and REM sleep, and for the relevance of the brain stem in dreaming, are delineated. Finally, many of the more specific and subtle aspects of the psychoanalytic theory of dreaming are seen as beyond the present reach of neurobiology. This is not a basis for discarding these elements, some of which have already found experimental and clinical support.