1st Edition

Psychodynamic Neurology Dreams, Consciousness, and Virtual Reality

By Allan Hobson Copyright 2015

    Psychodynamic Neurology: Dreams, Consciousness, and Virtual Realty presents a novel way of thinking about the value of dreaming, based in solid comprehension of scientific research on sleep and dreams, but with deep understanding of psychoanalytic and other interpretations of dreams.

    This book:

    • Surveys the remarkable history of sleep research over the past few decades
    • Examines the neurobiology of sleep and its implications for consciousness and well-being
    • Addresses the nature of waking and dreaming consciousness and how they are deeply related
    • Presents the neurogenesis, function, and clinical importance of a brain-based dream theory

    Our dreams are a mixture of anticipated virtual as well as remembered real experience. This book tells the story of how neuroscience has helped us reach this startling and exciting conclusion and how the new scientific model builds upon and departs from the dream theories of the past.

    Historical Background: The Mind-Brain Schism of 1900
    Virtual Reality Dream—12/6/2011
    Philosophical Issues
    The Freudian Split
    Modern Sleep Science
    Psychodynamics
    William James
    Helmholtz and the Pact Against Vitalism
    Wilhelm Wundt

    Neurological Development: Sleep and Dream Science
    Noreene Storrie and Potatoes—11/26/2012
    Self and Agency
    Fetal Brain Activation
    Sleep Eye Movement
    I Move, Therefore I Am
    Separate Selves
    Vision in Waking and Dreaming
    A Virtual Space for Virtual Sensation and Virtual Movement
    Taking Virtual Reality Seriously
    Evolution
    Self-Organization
    Dreaming in Real-Time
    Time Sense in Dreams

    Lucid Dreaming: Splitting Primary and Secondary Consciousness

    Waking Dream—1/12/13
    Flip-Flop States
    Brain Dissociation
    Free Will?
    Brain Imaging and Lucid Dreaming

    Hypnosis: Entering The Brain-Mind Via The Brain Stem Cellar
    Associations Are Never Free
    Autosuggestion and Self-Hypnosis

    Let There Be Light: Information Creation and Management
    PGO Waves of REM Sleep
    PGO Wave Inhibition
    Turning on PGO Waves and REM Sleep
    A Startling Hypothesis

    Central Heating: Keeping Warm While Dreaming

    Circadian Rhythms
    Loss of Temperature Control
    Individuality and Sleep
    Alcoholism: An Experiment of Culture And Nature
    Psychodynamic Neurology?
    Quantification
    What Is Free Energy?

    Religion And Sexuality: A Civil War in the Brain-Mind

    Religion
    Dreaming as Religion
    My God Is Better than Yours
    Varieties of Religious Experience
    Denial of Comfort
    Sex
    Chinese Love Dream—1/12/2012
    Sex Rules
    Brain Activation In Sleep
    Wet Dreams
    Sex and Religion Cross Wires

    The Psychodynamic Ego: An Epigenetic Self

    Freud as Inadvertent Cartesian
    A Conceptual Reversal
    Mental? Illness
    The Trauma Hunt
    Why Go to Medical School?
    Celebrate Skepticism
    A Shorthand of Defenses
    Psychological Camouflage
    Primary and Secondary Consciousness
    Free Will
    Dreaming as Primary Consciousness

    The Transcendental Ego: Art and Science of the Brain-Mind
    The Creative Ego
    Philosophical Background
    Biologizing Kant
    Transcendentalism
    A Model of the World
    Is Waking as Bizarre as Dreaming?
    Illogical Us
    Creativity and the Transcendent Ego
    Ski-Flying Dream—Sicily, 4/8/2011
    Storytelling and the Transcendent Ego
    New Initiatives Linking Dream Science and Literature
    Toward a Science of Subjectivity

    Instincts And Emotions: Ethology of the Brain-Mind

    Emotion Is Inherently Cognitive
    Ethological Psychiatry
    The Reticular Activating System
    REM Sleep Without Atonia
    REM Sleep Behavior Disorder
    Threat Avoidance
    Attachment and Separation

    Psychopathology: Dysfunction of the Brain-Mind

    Dream Madness
    What Kind of Psychosis Is Dreaming?
    Sleep and Mood Regulation
    A Paradox Explained
    Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors
    Lessons from the Past

    Memory: Epigenetic and Experiential Aspects

    Contrasts with The Freudian Unconscious
    Genetic Memory
    Epigenetic Memory
    Epigenetic Instantiation of The NREM-REM Sleep Cycle
    Cats Beget Kittens
    REM Sleep and the Consolidation Of Memory
    Elaborative Encoding

    Post-Freudian Revisions: Further Attacks on Psychoanalysis and Alternative Models
    The Anti-Freud War
    Biological Psychiatry and Psychobiology
    Behavioral Neurology
    Sleep and Dream Science

    Altered States: Toward a Science of the Brain-Mind

    Transcendental Meditation
    Eye Movement Redirection Therapy
    Substance Abuse
    Alcohol
    Cocaine
    Amphetamine
    Prozac
    LSD

    Brain-Mind Dream Interpretation: A New Project for Scientific Psychology
    Laboratory Dream—1/2/2012
    Commentary

    Biography

    Allan Hobson

    "With an intriguing integration of psychodynamic theory and modern sleep research, this book presents a unique understanding of dreaming and its importance. The author looks at the current understanding of sleep and dreams to help with a more modern understanding of psychoanalytic thinking. The book is written for a wide-ranging audience of individuals in psychiatry, neurology, and brain sciences, as well as those interested in a more philosophical understanding of human consciousness."
    —Michael Easton, MD, Rush University Medical Center